On Certainty
E55971
On Certainty is a posthumously published collection of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s late philosophical notes that investigates the nature of knowledge, doubt, and foundational “hinge” propositions.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| On Certainty canonical | 7 |
| Wittgenstein's notebooks | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T429746 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: On Certainty Context triple: [Ludwig Wittgenstein, notableWork, On Certainty]
-
A.
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is Ludwig Wittgenstein’s early 20th-century philosophical work that attempts to define the relationship between language, thought, and reality through a highly structured, logical framework.
-
B.
The Problems of Philosophy
The Problems of Philosophy is a short, accessible 1912 book by Bertrand Russell that introduces key issues in epistemology and metaphysics, such as the nature of reality, knowledge, and appearance versus reality.
-
C.
Language, Truth and Logic
Language, Truth and Logic is A.J. Ayer’s influential 1936 philosophical work that popularized logical positivism in the English-speaking world by arguing that meaningful statements are either empirically verifiable or tautological.
-
D.
Philosophical Investigations
Philosophical Investigations is a highly influential 20th-century work of philosophy that reshaped analytic philosophy through its exploration of language, meaning, and the limits of philosophical inquiry.
-
E.
Russell: Philosophical Essays
"Russell: Philosophical Essays" is a collection of key philosophical papers by Bertrand Russell, showcasing his influential work in logic, language, and analytic philosophy.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: On Certainty Target entity description: On Certainty is a posthumously published collection of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s late philosophical notes that investigates the nature of knowledge, doubt, and foundational “hinge” propositions.
-
A.
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is Ludwig Wittgenstein’s early 20th-century philosophical work that attempts to define the relationship between language, thought, and reality through a highly structured, logical framework.
-
B.
The Problems of Philosophy
The Problems of Philosophy is a short, accessible 1912 book by Bertrand Russell that introduces key issues in epistemology and metaphysics, such as the nature of reality, knowledge, and appearance versus reality.
-
C.
Language, Truth and Logic
Language, Truth and Logic is A.J. Ayer’s influential 1936 philosophical work that popularized logical positivism in the English-speaking world by arguing that meaningful statements are either empirically verifiable or tautological.
-
D.
Philosophical Investigations
Philosophical Investigations is a highly influential 20th-century work of philosophy that reshaped analytic philosophy through its exploration of language, meaning, and the limits of philosophical inquiry.
-
E.
Russell: Philosophical Essays
"Russell: Philosophical Essays" is a collection of key philosophical papers by Bertrand Russell, showcasing his influential work in logic, language, and analytic philosophy.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
collection of philosophical notes ⓘ philosophical work ⓘ |
| addressesProblem |
criteria for knowledge claims
ⓘ
foundations of empirical knowledge ⓘ radical skepticism ⓘ |
| author | Ludwig Wittgenstein ⓘ |
| basedOn |
Wittgenstein's notebooks
ⓘ
linked to:
On Certainty
|
| centralConcept |
forms of life
ⓘ
hinge propositions ⓘ language-games ⓘ |
| composedAtEndOf | Ludwig Wittgenstein's life ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Austria ⓘ |
| discussesWork |
A Defence of Common Sense
ⓘ
Proof of an External World ⓘ |
| editor |
Denis Paul
ⓘ
G. E. M. Anscombe ⓘ
linked to:
Elizabeth Anscombe
G. H. von Wright ⓘ |
| genre | epistemology ⓘ |
| hasForm | fragmentary notes ⓘ |
| influenced |
contemporary epistemology
ⓘ
contextualism in epistemology ⓘ hinge epistemology ⓘ ordinary language philosophy ⓘ |
| influencedBy | G. E. Moore ⓘ |
| keyThesis |
doubt is only meaningful within a framework of undoubted certainties
ⓘ
knowledge claims presuppose a background of hinge propositions ⓘ some propositions function as ungrounded certainties rather than items of knowledge ⓘ |
| language | German ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
certainty
ⓘ
doubt ⓘ foundationalism ⓘ hinge propositions ⓘ knowledge ⓘ language and meaning ⓘ skepticism ⓘ |
| numberOfRemarks | 676 ⓘ |
| originalTitle | Über Gewißheit ⓘ |
| philosophicalFocus |
logic of knowledge-claims
ⓘ
relation between doubt and action ⓘ |
| philosophicalPeriod |
late Wittgenstein
ⓘ
linked to:
Ludwig Wittgenstein
|
| philosophicalTradition | analytic philosophy ⓘ |
| publicationStatus | posthumous ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1969 ⓘ |
| publisher | Basil Blackwell ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Philosophical Investigations
ⓘ
The Blue and Brown Books ⓘ Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus ⓘ |
| settingOfComposition |
Cambridge
ⓘ
linked to:
City of Cambridge
|
| structure | series of numbered remarks ⓘ |
| writtenInPeriod | 1950–1951 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: On Certainty Description of subject: On Certainty is a posthumously published collection of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s late philosophical notes that investigates the nature of knowledge, doubt, and foundational “hinge” propositions.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: On Certainty