For a larger image of this comic strip, click here.Questions & issues to consider:
A) What is the cartoonist's point about certainty? What do you think, or make, of his point?
B) What is the relationship between certainty and knowledge? How about the relationship between knowledge, certainty, "proven," and fact?
C) The last two frames of the comic strip present an ironic juxtaposition of ideas regarding certainty -- consider the boy's comment in the second-to-last frame ("The world's a less silly place...") in comparison with his exchange with Opus in the last frame. Comment on the ideas contrasted between the two frames. [e.g. Compare the content of Opus' comment in the last frame with the content of the statements quoted in frames 2 - 7 of the strip. Consider the implications of the boy's declaration in the next-to-last frame when applied to Opus' closing comment. Think about your initial reaction to the boy's statement in the last frame.] What observations, conclusions, and/or implications about knowledge and certainty are sparked by the strip?
D) Comment on the quality, quantity, and content of the evidence (examples) the three characters provide in support of the boy's declaration, in the second-to-last frame of the strip that "The world's a less silly place without you!"
D) Why did the cartoonist choose to add the last frame? Why didn't he just draw the headstone in the next-to-last frame and end there? Note: I'm certain ;-) it wasn't just to fill up space.
[Be sure to focus your comments on the knowledge issues raised in the comic strip. This comic strip clearly has a political overtone and slant. However, responding to that political element should not be the primary focus of your comments.]
18 comments:
How can you be certain the last frame isn't there to fill up space if certainty is dead?
I'm kidding, but seriously, aside from being a punchline at the end of the strip, the last dialog between Opus and Augie adds more meaning to the notion that certainty is dead. All the previous statements were to be taken with a grain of salt but were claimed to be certain anyway. The last statement, "the sun is setting", is something that would normally be obviously certain by comparison. However, since there is no longer any certainty, Augie relegates it to the same category as the previous political statements.
I remember commenting on this article almost a month ago but it still hasn't shown up. Weird, huh?
As I analyze the author's position, it's very clear that he is a critic of the Bush administration (a position it seems anyone can take these days), and for that reason seems to blame the death of certainty solely on the Republican Party! Instead of diving into politics head first, I'm just going to say that the author certainly knows how to play to the average American's fiddle. It is hard to interpret his position on certainty however. He's a cartoonist, his job is to make people laugh, whether it expresses his point of view or not. From what I gather, he knows that certainty isn't "dead", but is just suggesting that something needs to be done about the way the government justifies its statements. It's a valid point. The day where people can't trust their own government does sound certainty's death knell, but I think he's just taking our current situation to extremes because this is a comic, not the obituaries.
Now before I post this and send it off to be approved, let me just state that this is Michael Benitez speaking and not some Blogger addict with too much time on his hands. If my last post did get lost in cyberspace, I don't want this one to have the same fate...
In today's society certainty is not a given, with the Iraq war and the dollar losing its value, America is on its way to downwards spiral of uncertainty. And I think the author makes a good point, a strong poing that should reflect on the people within our society to try to change things within the U.S. Certainty is the only thing that people hang on to in order to establish a meaning and structure to their lives. The connection between knowledge and certainty is a close one, without the knowledge of ceratinty we are disoriented and do not know which way are lives are headed. There is also a bit of irony within the strip when the boy says "The world's a less silly place..." he is sadly mistaken. Because without certainty the world is full of disorder and chaos. And in the last frame its ironic and juxtoposing to what the boy said in the frame before, because he himself is uncertain to whether the sun is going to set or not. The author added the last frame for a purpose, he wanted to show that the society is helpless without certainty, unable to decide between even the simplest of things.
I think the author is trying to say that we should be able to count on the examples the boy gives. For example we should be able to count on our vice president being responsible enough to not shoot someone in the face or FEMA helping people out after a crisis. The boy says that these examples have killed certainty. However, the author's point is that there isn't many things we can really be certain of. We claim to be certain of things, but do we really have any basis for it other than it has worked in the past?
The last frame was the one that made the most sense to me and it puts a little humor on the whole subject. If certainty is dead, how can we depend on anything we claim to know. How do they know the sun will set? The last frame was added to make the point that nothing is certain.
Well, first comment! I really enjoyed this comic strip, mainly because of the sarcastic tone with which the boy uses the word "certainty". He makes a mockery of the word. That got me thinking about how loosely the word certainty is used now. Oftentimes we really aren't as certain as we think about any subject, so therefore can we really know it? I think that being certain about something used to mean that one was 100% sure; however over the years it has been diluted to meaning that one is "reasonably sure". Therefore to be certain isn't really to KNOW, is it? It's more to THINK that you know. I think that the artist was trying to showcase this, that nowadays we can't really be certain about anything just because someone else is.
Well sorry for being so delayed on this one, I finally managed to hack my computer so I could view the page. Better late than never I guess.
Anyways, it is clear that the author of this comic is creating a satire relating to current world events, but the key is that the Boy in the comic is confused by the amount of chaos that has been created by uncertainty. He claims the world would be less silly place without certainty, when in reality it is the opposite. This is revealing the truth behind every knowledge claim that there can never be true certainty. We witness the absurdity of the thought of no certainty when he questions whether or not the sun is setting.
The juxtaposition of the last two frames is key because the boy says the world is less silly without certainty, yet he questions the most minuscule fact, that the sun is setting. The author tries to suggest that certainty is an illusion and that we never had it to begin with. This is done by the sharing of terrible things that occurred while we had so called "certainty."
I am gonna guess that my previous comment got deleted so here is my comment a second time.
This comic displays the authors idea of the absurdity of "certainty". This is displayed through the comic and is heavily suggested in the last frame. In the comic we witness three characters at the burial site of "certainty". The boy in the comic, states that the world is a less silly place without certainty. This is a joke because he states prior that all this certain things were being disproved.
From knowledge gained in TOK I know that there is no such thing as absolute certainty and that any certainty at all is an illusion, because of the caveats we have in all 4 ways of knowing.
Finally at the end of the comic the boy questions whether or not the sun is going down which is purely absurd, but it displays the author's idea of how absurd the idea of certainty is. We cannot be truly certain about anything and if we are than we are mistaken. This is satirized in the comic with various references to current events that have went awry due to incorrect certainty.
i really enjoyed this comic. i always love how a comic artist can take something so serious as certainty and make it in to a joke, a joke that leavs you wondering if its possible to have certainty
If I could be certain about anything then I would think that the cartoonist is saying that authority is not a good enough reason to accept something as certain. The cartoon is designed to make it seem like no certainty is possible, but all the examples he cites are just instances where certainty is based on authority. So he's not really attacking certainty, he's just attacking one of the reasons for accepting something as truth. Certainty doesn't necessarily equate to truth, but people are certain about what they think is true.
I feel as though the creator of this cartoon is saying that with the complexities that exist within today's society (represented by the characters dialogue about the Iraq War), it is becoming more and more difficult to become certain about anything. This is portrayed in a literal way, seing as to the fact that "certainty" is literally dead in the cartoon picture. Furthermore, I think that the relationship is close between certainty and knowledge, because of the fact that at the end, when the sun is going down, the character says that it may or may not be going down when in fact the sun is most obviously going down. Thus, if certainty is dead, I believe that the author is saying that the few things we "know" are in fact decreasing as well.
I believe that the cartoonist is trying to say that what we know for certain may not always be true. Just because someone who plays a very important role in Our country or in a specific workplace, doesn’t mean that it true. Some people are just given false information to begin with and often reinvent in their head that it is true. For instance, if the President of the United States said that he was certain that he could fall off of a 100 foot building and not injure himself, would you think this to be true. The only way to find out for sure is to test it out and see; the only downside is collateral damage that may be caused. For instance: if the President dies, we would no longer have a President and a knew one would have to be appointed and voted into office, however, during this time, other countries may take this as a sign of weaknesses on our countries part because we are missing an influential body in our executive branch and they may try to attack us. This may cause damage to property and the loss of people’s lives.
I believe that the only way to be absolutely certain about something is to test it out and prove it, although this may not be the wisest decision in many cases such as the one stated above. The knowledge issues above then deal with the fact of juxtaposing certainty and knowledge, since doesn’t being certain about something also mean that you have knowledge about it, this may be a point to bring up in a class discussion later on, or are they totally different things. I believe that to be certain, you must have knowledge of something about the topic you are certain about. This means that you must have justifiable true belief. You must be able to provide evidence for the claim you are certain about, as well as be able to prove it to be true, because if you cannot undoubtedly prove it to be true, then there is doubt in the situation, and if there is doubt, then how can you fully belief in the idea itself. You must be able to hold knowledge for something that you are certain about.
One of the examples that the comic gave was the idea of there being weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and that Iraq is the central War on Terror. President George W. Bush was the one who brought up this idea openly to the public and stated that he was certain that this was fact and the statements were true, but it ended up not being so true; no weapons of mass destruction have yet to be uncovered in Iraq, and Iraq does not seem to be the Central War on Terror. All this steered away from the actuality of the War. All of the publics’ attention went to Iraq, when forgetting about places like Afghanistan and Iran, there the War is still going on and we are not hearing about it. I believe, as well as many others I have talked with, that Bush was trying to follow in his father’s foot steps and complete the job that he did not finish, and he is also interested in the oil that is over in the Middle East. He was trying to prove the statements true about weapons of mass destruction and the Central War on Terror, but like the example in the first paragraph, this may have been a grave mistake. Now thousands of American soldiers are over in other countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran, and thousands of Our soldiers have been killed trying to aid in Bush’s cause to prove his statements to be true.
The ending caption is quite amusing, in that it shows Opus making the statement that the “Suns going down.” and the boy with him replies with “Maybe. Maybe not.” This shows that after all of the statements about certainty and things being true, which turn out to be false, it is hard to really believe what will happen unless you see it. To really be certain, it must be something that has occurred already, but you may not be certain if it will end the same way that it had before. This is to say that things that we can mostly be fully certain about are events and happenings that have occurred in the past and that we have proof for plus witnessed its’ happenings for ourselves; without this, it is difficult to be certain about something.
It is clear the the cartoonist does not value certainty, through his use of numerous "certainties" that have been claimed (mostly in regards to Iraq)that have been highly questioned (if not flat out proved false) in the long run.
In a way, this cartoon relates to Descartes first meditation quite a bit. Although some ideas have appeared to be certain over the years, there is no way to know that they are absolutely certain, so "certainties" must be under some degree of scrutiny. If they do not undergo scrutiny, any possible advancement closer to the truth is prevented. I am not going to go in depth into it, however the implications are relatively clear in regards to the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. Perhaps if the government wasnt so certain the occupation was working, and perhaps if the opposition wasnt certain that the occupation wasnt working, a greater truth could have been achieved that would have been somewhere between the two extremes.
It is ironic that the boy comments that the world will be a less silly place without certainty. This is because certainty is not normally thought of as humerous or silly, there is nothing funny about the inevitable, however there is something funny about the certainties that turn out to not be so certain in the long run.
The final bit with the boy questioning whether the sun will rise again is interesting. He is comparing the sun rising to the various "certainties" that have been proven wrong (or atleast put into question). This boy is so shocked by the failure of other "certainties" that he puts one of the most obvious certainties under speculation; the rising of the sun.
I think that this cartoon relies on a certain ambiguity that exists in how we look at events. Obviously in the last frame the artist makes this very clear. First he shows us a grave where "certainty" is buried; with certainty in the grave, it means that anything can be true or untrue and we have simply no way of knowing for sure. I think the other part of this final frame is a perfect example of this. He comments on the sun going down, and the other one says "maybe, maybe not." And really he is right. Just because the sun appears to be setting from our vantage point, it is rising on the other side of the world. I think that the artist is, perhaps, commenting that there is no so such thing as certainty, merely a frame of reference from which we view the world. I don't think that he means this to be a negative, however. I think that the artist means for us to be aware that we cannot accept one perspective being the absolute truth.
E) I think he put in the last frame to emphasize the point that certainty is something that people take for granted, and to also make it dramatic. Without it we can't know anything since, according to Decartes, we wouldn't be able to accept any knowledge as true knowledge if there was even the slightest chance of being false. If he put "certainty" on the head stone then he would not be able to make any of the claims in the second to last frame.
B)There is no such thing as knowledge if nothing can be certain. Since knowledge is justified true belief, all of it would hold potential to be faulty. You couldn't prove anything for certain, you couldn't be sure to believe anything, and you wouldn't be able to trust anything for certain. There would be no such things as "facts" either since facts have to be definite and certain. Without certainty knowledge would not exist. :-(
A) i think the cartoonist is saying that with the way things are going nowadays that to be certain of anything is hard since false evidence can be provided for a false claim.
B) the relationship between certainty and knowledge is that people use knowledge to make claims that something is certain.
D,D) The cartoonist using the phrase "The world's a less silly place without you!" i think that is in reference to how we have been given these claims that were certain to be true, ended up being false. Such as the comment about terry schiavo, WMD's, and liberators. Those certainties were not so certain in the end.
I feel the cartoonist added the last little comment about the sun just as added proof that certainty is dead and something as trivial as that is no longer easy to know for certain.
I think the cartoonist is saying that one can not know anything for certain because some people claim to know one thing and others claim to know something else. Like in Crimson Tide they both claimed they knew something and their shipmates were not sure who to believe, they themselves were not certain what the truth was because they had no way of knowing. They had to roll the dice and pick a side, just like us we go on with our lives uncertain of what will happen next. We can put forth a huge effort into accomplishing our goals but we are never certain if we will live long enough to se them full filled. On Saturday when i was at work a lady I frequently speak to ask me if i was certain of anything, I do not know if she asked me because someone she was close to had just passed away and maybe she felt her life was coming to an end as well or because since the new managers moved in nothing has ever been constant except change. In any case i said i wasn't sure if i was certain of anything, and she replied that she was only certain of one thing. But she walked away before i could ask her what it was. Now i wonder.
I agree with Mr. Currier about the importance of the very last frame of this comic. I believe that it is making the statement that our world is becoming so strange and crazy that we can no longer really know if the sun is setting at the end of the day. Like Lauren said we should be able to have certainty in the fact that our vice president has the knowledge and safety skills to not shoot someone. And that FEMA should have the ability to help people after devestating tragedies like that of Hurricane Katrina. I believe that this frame was clearifing the authors man point in this comic strip.
Also I would like to make a comment on the issue of certainty and knowledge. I believe that the two are very importent and we need certainty to be able to have knowldge. We as humans need to have the ability to know for sure wheather something is true or not. Beacuse we use our knowledge on a day to day bases to make deciscions some of which are life changing and some of which are not as importent. And would would strugle to make these deciscions if we were not certain in the knowledge that we were given.
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