Certitude is the state of the mind in which it gives a firm assent to a judgment without fear of the possibility of error due to recognized valid reasons.
Three elements, therefore, enter into the concept of certitude: the firm assent to the judgment, the absence of fear of possible error, and the understanding of the valid reasons which exclude this fear.
The absence of the fear of possible error is the negative factor which distinguishes certitude from doubt and opinion, while the consciously apprehend valid reasons for the firm assent of the mind are the positive factor of conviction or certitude. This, of course, does not mean that the mind is really infallible in these convictions and that error is impossible in all these judgments.
What it does mean, though, is that the mind is subjectively certain of its grounds and does not fear the possibility of error; it is convinced that it is in possession of knowledge which is true and valid.
The educated man and the savage alike are convinced that the sun is an existing reality in the sky. The savage, furthermore, is convinced that the sun actually travels through the sky from east to west in the course of the day, while the educated man is certain that it does not; one of these two (subjective) certitudes must be wrong, because they are contradictory and mutually exclusive and cannot be true at the same time.
While, then, subjective certitude does not exclude the possibility of error, it does always exclude the fear of error in the mind of him who possesses certitude.
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