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Definitions, and Comment:
Being a Description of the World
By Eli Siegel

50. Certainty

Certainty is thought being of an object and nothing else than the object, and knowing that it is.

Certainty is a complete awareness of simplicity and activity of mind. Thought must be aware of itself to be certainty. Awareness implies activity.

A child of one is not certain that it exists, for it has had no active, aware thought about its existence. Certainty is mental activity come to a point, and having a base preceding the point or behind the point. Complete certainty is like a pyramid with an indescribably wide base, and indescribably large weight, and uninterrupted symmetry come to a point as near to nothing as possible. Sharpness, wideness, and weight, with form among the three, is a representation of certainty.

© 1945 by Eli Siegel, founder of Aesthetic Realism
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