2 - Scepticism

Here I talk about one of the important themes in my book based on my PhD thesis - "Epistemological Self-Consciousness". Scepticism or skepticism (US-spelling!) is very important in the history of philosophy, ancient Greek, Chinese and Indian philosophy all took various positions regarding the problem of the sceptic. One could even say that dealing with the sceptical challenge is one of the key functions of and challenges to philosophy.

Here we look at global or metaphysical scepticism that denies the human mind can know truths about reality, and contrast it with local or methodological scepticism and its role in science. We also consider some important problems related to scepticism such as the Justified-True-Belief thesis regarding the definition of knowledge and the Inductive principle. We consider the "scandal of scepticism" and the problem of coherence in argument - how can we ever conclude "we cannot be sure about anything" as an epistemological position and principle, but then be expected to be absolutely sure or certain we cannot be sure or certain about anything?

Books I mentioned:
"Knowledge - A Very Short Introduction", Jennifer Nagel, ISBN: 978-0199661268
"The Web of Belief", W.V. Quine & J.S. Ullian, ISBN: 978-0394321790