Augustine and Skepticism PHI/105 October 9‚ 2013 Louise Morell When we begin to question the possibility of knowledge what arises is skepticism. Skepticism is a view that doubts whether any of our beliefs can be supported by adequate or sufficient evidence (Popkin & Stroll‚ Philosophy Made Simple‚ 1993). The doubt or the denial of the possibility of knowledge is known as skepticism. Knowledge requires certainty; this implies that before we can claim to know anything we must be certain (Omoregbe
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Descartes‚ Hume and Skepticism Descartes is responsible for the skepticism that has been labeled Cartesian doubt. Hume critiques this skepticism in his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. After his discussion of Cartesian doubt‚ he offers a different type of skepticism that he considers as being more effective philosophically. Is Hume right in his characterization of Cartesian doubt and is the skepticism he offers better? Descartes introduced the idea of universal doubt to philosophy. If
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THE EXTENT OF DOUBT AND SKEPTICISM Hume’s reasoning on skeptical philosophy puts forward a neat framework of the reasons‚ nature and outcomes of such argumentation by examining its basic principles and attitudes. I will explain his opinions on skepticism and thus his attitude towards philosophy and the possibility of knowledge. Hume‚ in his work “Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”‚ expresses the importance of a process of reasoning that can lead at least to some confident and convincing beliefs
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Skepticism & Contextualism in Epistemology Epistemology‚ is generally understood as the study of knowledge. The word Epistemology was coined by Scottish philosopher James F. Ferrier‚ it is a word derived from Greek – Episteme meaning knowledge and logos meaning study. The study of knowledge or Epistemology covers not only basic day to day conceptualizations and realizations‚ but it is a field of study in itself that covers wide array of topics and almost everything one have learnt throughout his
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The notion of Philosophical zombie is used generally in a thought experiment to support arguments against the idea of physicalism. David Chalmers‚ a famous philosopher of mind‚ adopts the dualism of Decartes that mental and physical things are entirely different and argues that a world of philosophical zombie is possible except they do not have any conscious experience. However‚ most physicalist’s responses refuse the premise of a zombie world is possible. Although the argument of Charlmer has received
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In the first three chapters of Expert Political Judgment: How good is it? How can we know?‚ the author‚ Philip E. Tetlock‚ attempts to determine what type of political judgment is good‚ and establish the difficulties in such assessments (Tetlock‚ 2005‚ p. 2‚ 19). Tetlock uses chapter one‚ “Quantifying the Unquantifiable‚” to ascertain that it is challenging to evaluate the judgments that experts make when methods that are used to determine the performance of experts fail to focus on how experts think
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more proofs like this can be given. However‚ his proof that the external world exists relies on the assumption that we know that “here is a hand”. The fact that the premise itself is not rigorously proved is much cause for skepticism; yet‚ Moore tries to show that the skepticism is unwarranted. We cannot necessarily prove that we can know the world exists‚ but we still can in fact prove that it exists by a similar procedure to Moore’s hand argument. While I feel that Moore is correct‚ looking at his
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Matrix essays [philosophy] Explain some of the philosophical issues outlined in the film‚ The Matrix. (AO1) Through the film‚ The Matrix‚ the philosophical idea of epistemology is explored. One aspect of this philosophical issue that is tackles is whether we can trust our senses. In the film Morpheus says: ‘real is simply electrical impulses interpreted by your brain’. Everything we see is just light waves being reflected off objects into our eyes‚ everything we touch stimulates electrical
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What is Scepticism? Is Methodological Scepticism different? The philosophical term Scepticism can simplistically be described as the challenging of established knowledge‚ principles‚ assumptions and beliefs in philosophy‚ science and theology (Kisner‚ 2005) Scepticism is based on the fact that with enough skill‚ any argument can sound convincing However‚ like most other philosophical constructs the notion is a lot more complex and often ambiguous‚ particularly upon examination of Rene Descartes
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Cynicism Cynicism is one of the most striking of all the Hellenistic philosophies. It offered people the possibility of happiness and freedom from suffering in an age of uncertainty. Although there was never an official Cynic doctrine‚ the fundamental principles of Cynicism can be summarised as follows: 1. The goal of life is happiness which is to live in agreement with Nature. 2. Happiness depends on being self-sufficient‚ and a master of mental attitude. 3. Self-sufficiency is achieved
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