PAPER NO. 69

SOURCES OF SKEPTICISM

Skepticism (intellectual despair) is rooted in our uncritically held assumptions.

  1. Informal Fallacies

It involves the use of irrelevant appeals as a substitute for the use of reason and logical argument. For example: ad hominem; straw man; question begging; arguing in a circle; appeal to pity, fear, popularity, etc. (see Paper No. 71). It assumes that if a pseudo-argument does not succeed, no argument will succeed.

  1. Tradition and Custom

It assumes what we are most comfortable with is true. For example: since it has been around a long time it is true; it is right because that is the way I have been taught; most people I know think and act this way, etc.  This certainty melts in our exposure to other cultures or hardens into prejudice.

  1. Common Sense

It assumes that appearance is reality (naïve realism). For example: the earth is flat; the sun rises in the east; the color of the ocean is blue, green, gray, clear. Common sense takes the condition of the perceiver for granted.

  1. Intuition

It assumes that the natural sign is always accompanied by the reality, or the sign is the reality. For example: truth is beauty, beauty truth; pleasure and goodness; sex and love; smile (good vibrations) and friendliness. It assumes this is a morally ideal world.

  1. Science

It is being misused and becomes a source of skepticism when its methods are over-extended to a philosophical principle. For example:

  1. When empiricism is assumed (all knowledge is ultimately from sense experience—there are no innate ideas of reason apart from experience).
  2. When it goes beyond its empirical boundary (in assuming only natural or material forces must be used to explain phenomena).
  3. When it fails to distinguish data (pure experience) from fact—data interpreted in light of philosophical assumptions.
  4. When it fails to notice that science does and must have philosophical foundations, which have to be critically analyzed for coherence of meaning.
  5. When skeptical disclaimers (tentativeness and pragmatism) are used to forgo philosophical criticism of its assumption.
  1. Reason

It is a source of skepticism when it is misused or not fully used.

  1. It is misused when used as a source of truth rather than as a test for meaning.
  2. It is not fully used when it is used constructively only and not first and fundamentally used critically to examine basic assumptions for coherence of meaning.

This paper was originally developed for an Introduction to Philosophy course.


© 1992 Logos Papers Press