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The Certainty of Hands
“Nevertheless it is imaginable that my skull should turn out empty when it was operated on.” Wittgenstein
“Here is one hand,
And here is another.
There are at least two external objects in the world.
Therefore, an external world exists.” G.E. Moore
“I’ve got two hands/ going to clap my hands together/I’ve got two legs/going to dance to heaven’s door.” Townes van Zandt
“There is a certain sense, of certainty.” John K. Samson
I: My Skull Is Not Empty
I am certain my skull is not empty, because I feel my thoughts rattling around in their bone-cage. Thoughts somehow appear, and bounce like ping pong balls against the fluid that sits against the bone (that is, if ping pong balls exist. I do not have one, but I believe they do). These thoughts are not external to me, like my hands, which I can see. My sense of sight is also subjective, which is to say that only I experience my own sense of sight, and it is dependent on the light in the room. There is very little light in the room. I fell more uncertain, of all things, in dark rooms.
Thoughts travel and they zing along at the speed of thought. They travel with electricity. They leap across gaps, to other neurons, other parts of the brain. At least, this is…
