Questions tagged [skepticism]
The skepticism tag has no usage guidance.
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
Alice has made some anecdotal observations. Through a process of elimination, she proposes a hypothesis to explain the phenomenon, as well as an experiment to validate (or otherwise) her hypothesis. ...
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To what extent is intersubjective agreement required for one to be justified in trusting one's own subjective experiences?
Context: this is a follow-up to my last question Is the hallucination hypothesis always the best explanation?
Suppose A has a subjective experience (or multiple subjective experiences) that leads them ...
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Is the hallucination hypothesis always the best explanation?
Suppose there are two persons A and B.
A attests to having witnessed some extraordinary event, e.g. A claims to have had an extraordinary religious experience with an other-worldly entity. Let's say ...
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Do atheists bear the burden of proof in showing why/how the reasons presented by theists are unconvincing?
In conversations and debates between atheists and theists, is it enough for the atheist to assert that they are skeptical of theism without providing justification, or does the atheist bear the burden ...
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Is constantly questioning yourself a virtue or a drawback?
In modern society, skepticism in things is taken to be a virtue. Presumably, this is equated with being open minded and having an easier willingness to change your mind in the wake of new evidence.
On ...
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If we don't know anything for certain, how do we know that?
I think it is the case that we don't know anything for certain. But if that is the case, how can we know that we don't know anything for certain? This is related to Socrates's famous remark that all ...
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How does fallibilism not collapse into skepticism?
First let's define fallibilism as the view that there's no belief that can't turn out to be false no matter how much credence we lend to it.
This implicitly entails that we take ourselves to not be ...
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Do we know that we don't know whether we are in a skeptical hypothesis scenario?
Novice here, so please don't use jargon or advanced topics (I've had experiences like this on the math stack exchange lol). I was reading through the book Philosophy for Everyone, and I was just ...
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A Case of Scheler vs. Skepticism: Religious Experience
This concerns a problem I myself have with Scheler, and am not sure where to go with it. Scheler argues in On the Eternal in Man that one cannot dismiss religious experience (or as he calls it, "...
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Can we conclude from Wittgenstein that all philosophy shows just as well that all philosophy is nonsense?
There's been a lot of skeptical questions recently, about knowledge, god, probability, other minds, all sorts of crazy stuff (I'm still waiting for "nothing is true")
Can we conclude from ...
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Is it possible for the sentence "bachelors are unmarried" to be fallible?
Is it absolutely certain that "bachelors are unmarried"? Are analytic propositions like these more certain than the cogito? Is this one area where philosophers throughout time have agreed ...
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Why is Time Cube wrong?
Time Cube was a pseudoscientific theory from a crank. It is generally believed by the scientific community that there is no meaningful theory which can be isolated from the Time Cube corpus.
In debate,...
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Restating my argument, people have seen real unususal seemingly fictional creaturs [closed]
NOBODY SHOULD EDIT MY ARGUMENT BECAUSE THEY DONT REPRESENT IT CORRECTLY
Reconsidering Unusual Creature Sightings: A Rational Perspective
It is important to reconsider the phenomenon of reported ...
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Omniscience argument against Pyrrhonian Skepticism
Pyrrhonian skeptics are known to (allegedly) suspend judgement on ALL matters, thereby being completely free of all presuppositions.
But could such a skeptic suspend judgment about their own ...
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Standards of knowledge-by-testimony and reports of unusual lifeforms [closed]
The argument goes:
Over 50% of all statements made by all people in general are true or at least sincere.
Over 50% of observation reports are factually accurate (not reports of hallucinations).
A ...
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Could skeptics practicing empathy be justified?
Suppose one takes the standpoint of a skeptic to the problem of author minds, that is suppose that we accept that we can't judge whether others have a mind like ours. Then, what would be the ...
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Help sourcing a quote - "There is no doctrine so invalid..."
Recently a quote popped into my head, which I recall as a Bishop Berkeley proposition. But on further looking into the matter, I can't seem to find it. It's within the general area of the following:
"...
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What noun describes the ideology that most things are scams?
What’s the -ism that portrays this outlook. This forgotten -ism is related to — BUT NOT — capitalism, corpocracy, cynicism, Marxism, misanthropy, nihilism, pessimism, socialism or skepticism. Such ...
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Substructural skepticism
The SEP article on substructural logic mentions an issue of repeated premises:
So, I might have X, X ⊢ A, which says that I can use X twice to get A. I might not have X ⊢ A, which says that I can use ...
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Do judges violate due process in their efforts to make a logical connection between would-be evidence and facts in question?
Note: I had this post with a question that follows, but then I reformed the question again. I've used ChatGPT to help me research this issue, and I think it has been somewhat helpful.
For anyone ...
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The possibility of knowledge [closed]
If a skeptic comes to argue against the possibility of Knowledge, Would you refute it? If yes, why? If not, Why?
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If an argument cannot be known as sound, can it still be claimed as sound?
I have read the the criteria to determine if an argument is sound is if its claim is valid and its premises are true.
However, what if no one can know whether or not an argument is sound because no ...
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Arguments against personal omphalism [closed]
Personal omphalism is, for a lack of a better term (let me know if you know of a better word), what I call the possibility of one's own mind having come into existence at any point, with one's ...
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Can a coincidence be evidence of a god?
If I experience a coincidence or a coincidence happens in the world that seems to be at extremely low odds, does this imply that God exists? If it doesn’t imply that God exists, can it at least make ...
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How can frameworks build anything complex and permanent given the fallibility of memory?
Imagine you start your framework with some facts.
Now, you then derive some statement. Can you hold the entire chain of inference in your mind simultaneously? If not, then that statement is dependent ...
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Is skepticism invincible?
Agrippa's 5 tropes
Dissent: For every thesis an anithesis
Relation: Point of view matters.
Infinite Regress: Justifications need justifications need justifications ... ad infinitum
Axioms: Assume ...
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Is the (truth of) justification of political beliefs necessary given Pyrrhonism?
To explain real quick. Pyrrhonism is some sort of philosophical practice which does reject (or suspend judgment on) epistemic criteria. It is debatable if they can hold beliefs, but even if the could ...
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Does the imagination qualify as any form of evidence?
Suppose I believe in entities, aliens, God or higher intelligent being that are in communication with me. The catch is, there is no physical evidence for their existence. However, if such things ...
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Is relativism the opposite of skepticism, but practically the same?
Radical relativism denies absolute truth. But we can easily acquire the only possible truth (relative truth). According to Plato's Protagoras, you cannot fail to achieve it.
For radical skeptics ...
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Should doubt be epistemically justified?
If you doubt a claim X, should this very state of being in doubt be justified? How does one justify doubt in the first place? One can technically doubt anything except experience. But few would say ...
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Should a solipsist get life insurance?
What are the reasons for a convinced metaphysical solipsist to get life insurance?
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What does meaning-scepticism mean?
I found the term in The Limits of Realism (Tim Button) (2013) on page 2:
We are, then, looking for an argument that forces realists to consider
semantic questions. A natural place to look is in the ...
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Has the author undermined skepticism at all through his argument in "Certainty: A Refutation of Scepticism"?
The author provides an outline of his argument in p. 11-12:
1.3 Outline of My Argument
I believe that these three forms of scepticism can be refuted by showing that the following four claims are true:...
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The Scientific Method(s), Skepticism and Faith: What other methods have been proposed as a means by which to arrive at truth?
The contemporary Youtube universe (according to the algorithm directing my stream) seems to separate our search for truth (and/or the attempt to avoid falsity) into the contrasting 'methods'/means of ...
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How should I define the problem of skepticism and the criteria for its solution?
I am writing an epistemology essay on whether a particular theory solves the 'problem of skepticism'. I am familiar with the skeptical paradox, but I am not sure exactly how to define what a solution ...
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Is there any way for me to know if I exist, as such, do I exist?
Is there any way for me to truly know I exist? I mean, I think I exist, but I recently came across skepticism, which says to doubt everything, even one's own existence, so now I don't know if I exist. ...
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Bayesian argument for combining extraordinary claims
This is an improved version of Backwards Bayesian argument for alien visitation?
It is said that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and therefore this criterion is applied to every ...
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Epistemic value of multiple eyewitness accounts: single event vs. multiple events given a fixed number of eyewitnesses?
Intuitively speaking, multiple independent eyewitness accounts of a single event are more convincing than a single eyewitness account. For example, multiple independent eyewitness accounts of a loud ...
user48437
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Can we doubt all knowledge?
Can we doubt all knowledge from all sources (perception, reports, and reason)?
Regarding doubting reason, reason can't be proven, it is preceived and judged instantly by our logic, but what if our ...
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An Argument against Descartes's radical doubt
Reflecting on Descartes's evil genius, I came up with an argument to use against his radical skepticism, that is, when he doubts even the basic laws of logic and basic mathematics (3 + 2 = 5).
The ...
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Do we cause words to mean things, or do words cause us to mean things?
This question occurred to me while reviewing a skeptical argument from Kripke regarding semantics:
Suppose that I’ve never dealt with numbers larger than 57. (Given our finite nature and the ...
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How is it known that Aenesidemus the major sceptic philosopher was from Knossos?
Aenesidemus is considered one of the major skeptic ancient philosophers but according to wikipedia little is known about his life.
How is it known that Aenesidemus the major sceptic philosopher was ...
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Backwards Bayesian argument for alien visitation?
Let A = the hypothesis that aliens are visiting Earth
Let E = evidence that aliens are visiting Earth
The posterior probability that aliens are visiting Earth, given some evidence, P(A|E), can be ...
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Is Dennett what Williamson calls a Judgement Skeptic?
Timothy Williamson in Evidence in Philosophy, chapter 7 section 3 of his book "Philosophy of Philosophy" (2007), conveys the notion of the Judgement Skeptic - e.g. (bold emphasis is mine)
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Second-order skepticism
Let "kS" = "It is known that S." Then kkS or k2S is a common hypothesis in epistemic logic (the full hypothesis can be stated as kS → k2S). So a second-order skeptic [SOS] at least ...
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How to be skeptical of transcendental arguments?
SEP and others have transcendental arguments as claims “namely that X is a necessary condition for the possibility of Y—where then, given that Y is the case, it logically follows that X must be the ...
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What are the arguments against agnosticism and for gnostic atheism?
Agnosticism does not discount the possibility of god, soul, afterlife, etc, because "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"
What are the arguments against that position?
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What is the philosophical position that a metaphysical debate is caused by different mental models?
I'm looking for authors, papers, and hopefully, the name of the philosophical position that I describe here. I've seen a couple of papers so I know that they exist, but I can't recall the authors or ...
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How did Descartes made a logical skeptic argument against logic, without falling into a paradox, in his Metaphysical Meditations? Is it actually valid
René Descartes seems to have made some arguments against logic and mathematics in his Metaphysical Meditations, however it seems that these arguments are still logical, and the problem is whether that ...
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What is the relationship between Anekantavada and Pyrrhonic skepticism?
Best skeptic arguments, five tropes of Agrippa are these: (wiki)
Dissent – The uncertainty demonstrated by the differences of opinions among philosophers and people in general.
Progress ad infinitum – ...
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