Can Skepticism Be Defended, Perhaps In A Limited Form? Essay -- essays

Can Skepticism Be Defended, Perhaps In A Limited Form?1. IntroductionThis essay centres around what it means to know something is straightforward and also whyit is important to distinguish between what you know and do not or tolerate not know.The skeptic in challenging the possibility of knowing anything challenges thebasis on which all epistemology is based. It is from this attack on epistemologythat the defence of agnosticism is seen.2. Strong ScepticismStrong scepticism states that it is not possible to know anything. That is wecannot energize absolute knowledge of anything. This can however immediately havethe reflexive argument turned on it and have the capitulum begged of it If itis not possible to know anything then how is it you know that nothing isknowable ?. Strong Scepticism is therefore unable to be defended.3. A interpretation of KnowledgeKnowledge can be said to be information that the brain has received that meets acertain hard-boiled of criteria. When someone states that they know something they mustinessalso suppose that, that something is so. If they did not believe in it then howcould they take it in as knowledge ?, they would instead be doubtful of it andlook for deduction or justification as to why they should believe it.Secondly for someone to believe in something they must also believe that it istrue. If they did not believe that it was true then what is mentioned abovewould not occur.So, so far it is decided that knowledge should be true belief. How does one cometo the conclusion that something is true however ?. We look justification. Thejustification really is the most important part of the criteria because withoutit one cannot say something is true and therefore cannot say that one believes.This does however bring up the question of how does something become justified ?,do we hear it from other people ?, see it on the news ?. The justification ofsomething really depends on its predictability. If something becomes predicta blethen it can becomes justified aswell. For example, I know that the sun will risetomorrow is a fair thing to say because I believe this is so, I believe this istrue, and I am justified in believing this due to my past experience* of thepredictableness of the sun rising each day.The only problem with meeting the set of criteria laid out above is that onemust use one senses to do so and as shall be shown ... ...Britain Methuen & Co.Ltd.Dancy, Jonathon (1985), An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology, GreatBritain basil Blackwell Ltd.Descartes, Rene (as translated by E.S. Haldane and G.R.T. Ross) (1969), ThePhilosophical Works of Decartes vol. I - II, Cambridge Cambridge UniversityPress.Edwards, Paul (1965), The Logic of Moral Discourse, New York The Free Press.Gorovitz, Williams (1967), Philosophical Analysis, An Introduction to ItsLanguage & Techniques, New York Random House.Guthrie, W. K. C. (1971), The Sophists, Cambridge Cambridge University Press.Hamlyn, D. W. (1983), The guess of Knowledge, London Macmillan Press.Harris, Errol (1969), Fundamentals of Philosophy - A Study of Classical Texts,U.S.A. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.Harrison, J. (1966-67). A Philosophers Nightmare or The Ghost not Laid.Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Vol LXVII.Hume, David (1962), A Treatise of human race Nature, Great Britain Fontana Library.Presley, C. F. (1967), The Identity Theory of Mind, St Lucia University ofQueensland Press.van Inwagen, P. and Lowe E. (1996) . Why Is There Anything At All?. Proceedingsof the Aristotelian Society, Vol LXX.