certezze

Certezze is the plural of certezza in Italian, meaning certainty or confidence about the truth of a proposition. The term is used across everyday language, philosophy, science and law. Its etymology traces back to Latin certus, meaning sure or settled.

In epistemology, certezza denotes a state in which a belief is justified and held with high confidence. Philosophers distinguish between different senses of certainty, such as epistemic certainty (beliefs immune to rational doubt) and practical certainty (a confident, actionable belief in ordinary life).

Absolute, indubitable certainty is debated. Descartes framed methodological certainty as the goal of certain knowledge, achieved by rigorous doubt and clear and distinct ideas. In contrast, fallibilist positions hold that even well-supported beliefs could be revised.

In science, certainty is often probabilistic rather than absolute. The term is used informally to express high probability or strength of evidence. Mathematical disciplines treat certainty through proofs that derive necessity from axioms, while empirical fields rely on reproducibility, falsification and statistical confidence levels.

In everyday use, certezza conveys the sense of reliability grounded in experience, testimony, or reasoning. The term thus marks a spectrum, from practical certainty in daily decisions to theoretical certainty in formal systems.