Knowing
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Knowing

There are two kinds of "Knowing" or "Certainty":  rational and emotional.

We can feel that we "know" something as a result of either a rational consideration or an emotional conviction.  Meaningful discussion is hampered by conflating these two concepts.

If one believes that their personal emotional conviction is the same as certainty, then they consider themselves to be infallible, their mind is closed, and there is no point in having a discussion.

They may argue that they do not consider themselves infallible, but they still argue that their belief is unquestionable, in which case they are guilty of a logical contradiction:  the statement that their opinion about their belief is infallible is the same as them saying they are themselves, insofar as their opinion, infallible, which no one is, about anything.

If one accepts that even the most deeply held emotional conviction could possibly be wrong, then a basis for discussion exists.

Actually, there really isn't any such thing as "rational knowing" or "rational certainty"; all one can do is decide whether an idea has a high-enough level of probability that it is true, to treat it as a "fact" for practical purposes.

The term "emotional certainty" is problematic because emotions themselves have such broad, even vague, definitions, especially in different contexts and intensities.  It would be better to use the term "emotional conviction".

"Emotional conviction" is highly unreliable.  It is difficult for many people to accept the fact that even their most deeply-held beliefs might not be true.

Few people understand that an idea being "unquestionable" is inherently fallacious.  Again, they will be quick to say they know they are not "infallible", but they don't have the ability, or the education, to understand, when they consider an idea to be "unquestionable", they are inherently claiming that their opinion itself (that the idea is unquestionable/infallible), is infallible, which it is not.

When people adamantly insist that they "know" something, that is an indication that they simply believe what they want to believe and what comforts them, that they are not in the habit of thinking things through, and don't "know" anything.

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