Book Title: World of Philosophy
Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
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PLACE OF SCEPTICISM IN QUINE”S NATURALISED
EPISTEMOLOGY
Dr. R. Lakshmi The problem of scepticism, is perhaps, the most widely discussed but unsolved philosophical problem. Its silent but profound influence is felt throughout the course of western epistemology. Traditionally, skepticism is considered as a problem arising within epistemology proper and thus classical epistemologists tried to find a solution to it from within those fields. But during the contemporary times, the course of western epistemology itself is changing where we can find new ways of thinking like naturalized epistemology whose approach to the problem of skepticism is also unique. This paper tries to find whether naturalized epistemology can offer solutions to the problem of scepticism and if so to what extent.
Generally, scepticism is the denial that we have some kind of knowledge or more precisely, the denial that we have some kind of knowledge one might sensibly suppose we have. The rejected body of knowledge might be identified by subject matter ie ; scepticism about the external world, scepticism about the past or by mode of acquisition (perception, induction). Knowledge requires justification, so that the denial that we have justification for a body of belifes implies the denial that those belifes count as knowledge. We take ourselves, for instance, to know a lot about the world and to deny that we enjoy such knowledge is to endorse scepticism about the external world. In this paper, I will be discussing more or less this kind of scepticism) “The sceptic is a hard - nosed person who claims that most people allow themselves to be persuaded by what is really rather weak evidence, but that he needs more than to convince him.... But in order to become philosophically interesting, rather than simply an intellectual freak) he must do more than assert that higher standards of evidence are better”
The search for finding an answer to the question, what makes knowledge has been the occupational disease of traditional epistemologists from Socrates and Plato through Descartes, Locke and Hume to Kant. Analytic Philosophers and logical positivists also made a critical study of what epistemology could be.
The new orientation in the pursuit of critical epistemology in the twentieth century, especially by the analytical thinkers, is necessitated by the redefining of the skeptical question itself. It is no doubt that sceptism has always been the negative source of inspiration for thinkers like Descartes, Hume & Kant. Analytical thinkers have developed a different view of scepticism in the sense that they tried to understand the sceptic
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