The Failure of the Project of Certitude

We seek certainty. We won't believe anything until it's certain, Descartes said. And there are individuals who seem to speak as if mathematical science will still give us certainty. But that's an illusion, part of what we discover after Descartes. There are deep, deep reasons why we can't pursue certainty. The 18th and 19th centuries were scientific, historical, philosophical undermining of the idea that we can achieve certainty.