Topic 9b Skepticism PDF

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Skepticism....

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Topic 9: Skepticism Dr. Shyam Ranganathan

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What is skepticism?

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Why do people entertain skepticism?

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What can skeptical arguments do?

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Why does skepticism seem reasonable

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How do skeptical arguments function?

Two strategies for skepticism 

For any proposition p, one can either assent or dissent.

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Similarly, one can either affirm interesting propositions of a certain type say propositions about the weather), or deny them.

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(1) One can assent to a meta proposition (mp) about such interesting propositions, that knowledge of claims this type is possible.

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(2) Or, one can doubt mp : this renders one a Cartesian Skeptics/Academic Skeptic.

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One can also withhold assent for (1) and (2): this renders one a “Pyrrhonian Skeptics” after Pyrrho who lived between ca 365–ca 275 BCE.

Argument for Academic Skepticism 

If I know that p, then there are no genuine grounds for doubting that p.

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U is a genuine ground for doubting that p.

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Therefore, I do not know that p.

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Applied across the board to interesting propositions of a certain kind, this kind of argument casts doubt about the class on the whole.

Dr. Shyam Ranganathan

An Argument for Pyrrhonian Skepticism 

Historically, Pyrrhonians withheld assent for “non-evident” propositions.

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The question of course is what makes something non-evident? One can imagine disagreements about this.

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But a simple reason, which would be devastating, is merely that there are two sides to any issue---something to be said on all sides, and hence no particular side is definitive.

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In such case, one might think that it is appropriate to withhold assent for nothing is evident.

Skepticism---motivation ? 

This is a suggestion, but in any case that one finds skepticism, we could look to a corresponding belief, which the relevant doubt hinges on.

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So for instance, in the argument for Academic Skepticism:

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If I know that p, then there are no genuine grounds for doubting that p.

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U is a genuine ground for doubting that p.

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Therefore, I do not know that p.

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In order for the argument to produce skepticism, someone has to not merely understand the argument, but endorse its premises.

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The act of endorsing such premises is believing them.

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An example: the sad case of Tamara Lovett, the Calgary mom, who never took her son to a doctor because she didn’t believe in conventional medicine. She tried to treat his Group A strep infection with herbal cures: her son, Ryan, died. (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/tamara-lovett-ryanfailing-provide-necessaries-trial-decision-1.3947694)

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In this case, her skepticism about conventional medicine was tied to a belief in natural cures. That conventional medicine was not natural was a reason not to take advantage of it.

Dr. Shyam Ranganathan

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Another example: Flat Earthers doubt the roundness of the Earth, but that’s because they believe it’s flat.

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Similarly, the Pyrrhonian skepticism that we should not believe propositions that are not evident depends upon the belief that the propositions worth believing are the evident ones (whatever that is).

The Take away 

Skeptics are cast as doubters, but that’s really just half of the story. There’s a belief at play that motivates doubting a class of claims.

Why Skepticism Does Not Worry the Yogi 

Skepticism seems threatening if we think that belief is important.

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If belief is important, that we doubt certain claims seems to count against it.

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But if belief is unimportant to critical thinking, then our failure to believe a proposition is irrelevant to its role in reason.

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Add this to our previous lessons from the Yoga Sūtra and general observations, that objectivity is what we can disagree about, skepticism is a one-sided view of objectivity.

Dr. Shyam Ranganathan...