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Questions tagged [scepticism]

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How does Quine answer the metaphysician's charge that scientism is self-refuting?

General scientism seems to hold that due to the predictive powers of our scientific methods, such methods are preferred to other methods of knowledge, such as metaphysics (radical scientism claiming that metaphysics is by and large simply irrelevant…
Jecko
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Why do people who subscribe to self-refuting skeptical philosophies still argue with others?

The belief that everything is relative is obviously self-refuting, because it holds to an absolute. However, in my experience, people who believe this (or some form of it) such as some Buddhists and atheistic materialists, or people who have an even…
ErikE
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Is it thought that analytic philosophy is in decline after the linguistic turn?

I would like to know from someone who has closely followed contemporary analytic philosophy if this idea has any currency. So by "is it thought" I mean is it a general trend or mood. The reason for asking is that I read this essay by PMS Hacker,…
user20502
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Is Plato's Callicles an example of Nietzsche's Übermensch? Is the Epicurean hedonist?

Is the hard-headed Callicles from Plato's dialogue Gorgias the type of person who exemplifies Nietzsche's Übermensch (overman)? What about the hedonistic sage of Epicureans? Is he a Übermensch?
Frank Booth
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Does anyone know of a philosophy which rectifies or considers the following question?

Let's imagine that I began to doubt the validity of one of my arguments, which leads me to question my ability to make rational arguments. And so begin to distrust my intuitive ideas about logic, then I might ask myself Is my own logic valid? If I…
Akradantous
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Is doubting inner world is like doubting external world?

Does scepticism of external world and sceptical on inner world of same level? Like someone doubting external world doesn't exists, it is illusion or process or emergence by inner world, only inner world of mind and thoughts etc exists. And someone…
Hare Krishna
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How do I reply to a conspiracy theorist that claims that the evidence is also part of the lie?

Person A: HIV is a disease created by the illuminati 2000 to eliminate 50% of the world population and in 2017 a scientist find a cure to HIV and the illuminati killed him Person B: that doesn't really hold up because we have evidence from 2015 that…
vorpal professor
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Scientific truth vs. mathematical truth

It is said that in the real world nothing can be proven to be absolutely true because there is always a way for a statement to be disproved by a counterargument. For example, a person "A" could say that the apple felt down from a tree because that…
TKN
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What is the procentual probability that we live in the objective reality independent of our consciousness rather than in some virtual reality?

I am aware than it is impossible to prove anything in real life. Therefore we can't prove that the picture of the reality we are percieving through our senses is a subjective picture of an objective reality rather than just a dream, virtual reality…
TKN
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Why do we need any foundations at all?

Philosophy is metaphysics. If we don't understand metaphysics then we don't understand philosophy. If we don't have the foundation in place we can only build sand-castles. I feel you are misunderstanding both metaphysics and philosophy, You…
Dimitry
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Is it impossible to KNOW how our apparent reality came to be through philosophical or scientific argumentation?

Lately, i've been contemplating the mysterious doctrine or belief that many religiously inclined theists have called revelation. It is through this revelation from a god, defined in a certain rational or un-paradoxical way, that many ideas or…
The victorious truther
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How does mind discover its own existence?

By mind I mean the observer, the self, something that perceives. I hope that you understand because I can't find the right word. So, your mind can observe the external existence, and can observe its own thoughts (as something external). Cogito ergo…
user1764823
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How do we call a tendency of people to call things facts without further justification?

People usually talk as if it was some absolute truth what they are saying. What philosophy has taught me is that we cannot be sure of anything. For everything there exists some counterargument. If a person tells me that 2+2=4 without some other…
TKN
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How do we call a collection of axioms radical sceptic would have to accept as being true in order for a statement to be true?

Let's suppose that I want to write or say a statement to which I want to add meaning. Also let's suppose that this statement is only true if we say so or we deduce it from axioms. Also let's suppose that no implicit premises count in a deduction.…
TKN
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