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Philosophical Skepticism
Philosophical Skepticism
An introduction
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
Zenos Arrow
by Ren
Magritte
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