Philosophical Skepticism

An introduction

Philosophical Skepticism
Defined

From the Greek word skeptikoi =

seekers, inquirers
A critical attitude which
systematically questions the notion
that absolute knowledge and
certainty are possible.

Philosophical Skepticism
Defined

Philosophical Skepticism is NOT

ordinary skepticism (doubting a belief
because the evidence is weak or
lacking).
It is a philosophy that NOTHING
can be absolutely known or certainly
proved.

Philosophical Skepticism
Defined

Is the opposite of
PHILOSOPHICAL DOGMATISM
A philosophy that believes a certain
set of positive statements are
authoritative, absolutely certain, and true.

Philosophical Skepticism
The BIG ideas

1.
2.
3.
a

Knowledge is never absolute

Morality is never certain
(Moral Relativism)
Seeking absolute TRUTH creates
logical paradox
(Criterion of truth)

Philosophical Skepticism
The BIG ideas: NO ABSOLUTE KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge is always personal.

Knowledge is always immediate.
Knowledge is always mutable.
Because knowledge comes from
sensory experience, it changes from
moment to moment, person to
person.

Judith Beheading Holofernes

by Artemisia Gentilesche
Artemisia Gentilesche is one of Europes most famous female
artists.
She was taught to paint by her father, Orazio Gentilesche
She became a vigorous follower of Caravaggio, deploying highcontrast lighting and sometimes extreme violence
The story comes from the deuterocanonical book of Judith of the
Bible, and depicts a famous Biblical assassination.
The sword woman is Judith, a Jewish lady, and the other woman is
her maid, Abra.
The victim is Holofernes, an Assyrian General who was about to
destroy Judiths home, the city of Bethulia. Holofernes desired
Judith, so she slipped into his tent one night, got him drunk, and
then beheaded him.

Philosophical Skepticism
The BIG ideas: MORAL RELAVITISM
Man is the measure of all things.-Protagoras

Each person is the standard of truth.

We perceive things only as they appear to
us.

Our perceptions-- yes, even our

MORALS-- shift according to our
environment and situation.

Philosophical Skepticism
The BIG ideas: Criterion of Truth

Zenos arrow is never half-way to

its target, never in motion.
Zenos Arrow
by Ren
Magritte

Logical paradox: Can God do everything?

Can he make a stone so heavy he cannot
lift it?

Philosophical Skepticism
The BIG ideas: Criterion of Truth

Any criterion used to judge the

truth of a claim can be challenged
because a further criterion is needed
by which to judge the present
criterion and so AD INFINITUM!

Philosophical Skepticism
So Whats the Point?

Philosophical skepticism was NEVER

put forth as a literal guide for practical
living.
The goal of life is ATARAXIA (peace of
mind)

ATARAXIA is reached by
Holding no strong opinions (no closed
cases)
Supporting the PROBABILITY of a belief
if the evidence supporting it is greatest.

Philosophical Skepticism
NIHILISM
The foundations:
All values are baseless
Nothing is knowable;
nothing can be
communicated
Life itself is meaningless
Not a desperate, sad
existence though, despite
its conflict with most of our
philosophies-- how?
Nihilists struggle with the
conflict between WORD and
DEED

We are God's
unwanted
children? So be
it!

You wake up at Seatac, SFO, LAX. You wake up at O'Hare,

Dallas-Fort Worth, BWI. Pacific, mountain, central. Lose an
hour, gain an hour. This is your life, and it's ending one
minute at a time. You wake up at Air Harbor International. If
you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could
you wake up as a different person?

Nihilism

It is only after we have lost everything that we are free to do

everything.
Narrator:
What do
you do for a
Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
living?
Screenplay by Jim Uhls
Tyler
We're the middle children of
Durden:
history, man. No purpose or
place. We have no Great War.
Why? So
No Great Depression. Our
you can
Great War's a spiritual war...
pretend like
our Great Depression is our
you're
lives. We've all been raised on
On a long enough timeline,
television to believe that one
interested?

FIGHT CLUB

the survival rate for

everyone drops to zero.

day we'd all be millionaires,

and movie gods, and rock
stars. But we won't. And we're
slowly learning that fact.

Nihilism examples . . .

Broken
Flowers
The Big
Lebowski
Pink Floyds
The Wall
Most punk
rock
Most gothic
rock
Grendel by
John Gardner

Fountain Marcel Duchamp (1917)

Nude Descending a
Staircase, No. 2" Marcel
Duchamp
(1912)

Philosophical Skepticism
SOLIPSISM
The foundations
The individual understands all
psychological concepts (thinking, willing,
perceiving, etc.) by comparison with his
or her own mental states, i.e. making
generalizations from inner experiences
Nothing exists but oneself-- the
individual creates everything else.
Solipsism is an unresolvable question! (You
cannot
refute it!)

SOLIPSISM EXAMPLES . . .
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott
Fitzgerald
Stranger than
Fiction
(screenplay by Zach
Helm)

The Truman Show

(screenplay by Andrew
Niccol)

Grendel by
John Gardner

Man Striding, Alberto Giacometti

Philosophical Skepticism
EXISTENTIALISM

The foundations:

Rejects Descartes: I think, therefore I am

for I am, therefore I am. Consciousness is not
life.
Individual human beings have full
responsibility for
creating the meanings of
their own lives

Human beings are subjects in an

indifferent, objective, often ambiguous,
and "absurd" universe
Kirkegaard, Neitzsche, Heiddegger

Galaxy
Jackson
Pollock

Dans Mon Pays, Marc Chagall

Existentialism examples . . .
The Stranger by
Albert Camus
Notes from the
Underground by Fyodor
Doestoevsky
The Metamorphosis
by Franz Kafka
The book of Job (Old
Testament)
Grendel by John
Gardner

Duck Amuck
By Chuck Jones

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2403074570147260475&q=duck+amuck&hl=en