Robert A. Burton

We all recognize when we know something for certain, right? We “know” the sky is blue, or that the traffic light had turned green, or where we were when Kennedy was assassinated—we know these things, well, because we just do.

On Being Certain challenges the notions of how we think about what we know; it suggests that the feeling of certainty we have when we “know” something comes from sources beyond our control and knowledge.

Because this “feeling of knowing” seems like confirmation of knowledge, we tend to think of it as a product of reason. But an increasing body of evidence suggests that certainty is an involuntary mental sensation, rather than evidence of fact. The feeling of knowing happens to us; we cannot make it happen.