19 Skepticism
Knowledge: Is it Possible?
Skepticism in Epistemology
Skepticism is the belief that some or all human knowledge is impossible. Since even our best methods for learning about the world sometimes fall short of perfect certainty, skeptics argue, it is better to suspend belief than to rely on the dubitable products of reason. (28)
Review Philosophical skepticism from Wikipedia. (29)
Descartes and Methodical Skepticism
The first great philosopher of the modern era was René Descartes, whose new approach won him recognition by some as the progenitor of modern philosophy. Descartes’s pursuit of mathematical and scientific truth soon led to a profound rejection of the scholastic tradition in which he had been educated. Much of his work was concerned with the provision of a secure foundation for the advancement of human knowledge through the natural sciences. Fearing the condemnation of the church, however, Descartes was rightly cautious about publicly expressing the full measure of his radical views. The philosophical writings for which he is remembered are therefore extremely circumspect in their treatment of controversial issues.
After years of work in private, Descartes finally published a preliminary statement of his views in the Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason (1637). Since mathematics had genuinely achieved the certainty for which human thinkers yearn, he argued, we rightly turn to mathematical reasoning as a model for progress in human knowledge more generally. Expressing perfect confidence in the capacity of human reason to achieve knowledge, Descartes proposed an intellectual process no less unsettling than the architectural destruction and rebuilding of an entire town. In order to be absolutely sure that we accept only what is genuinely certain, we must first deliberately renounce all of the firmly held but questionable beliefs we have previously acquired by experience and education . (30)
The progress and certainty of mathematical knowledge, Descartes supposed, provided an emulable model for a similarly productive philosophical method, characterized by four simple rules :
- Accept as true only what is indubitable.
- Divide every question into manageable parts.
- Begin with the simplest issues and ascend to the more complex.
- Review frequently enough to retain the whole argument at once.
This quasi-mathematical procedure for the achievement of knowledge is typical of a rationalistic approach to epistemology.
In this context, Descartes offered a brief description of his own experience with the proper approach to knowledge. Begin by renouncing any belief that can be doubted, including especially the testimony of the senses; then use the perfect certainty of one’s own existence, which survives this doubt, as the foundation for a demonstration of the providential reliability of one’s faculties generally. Significant knowledge of the world, Descartes supposed, can be achieved only by following this epistemologi