Book Title: World of Philosophy
Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
View full book text
________________
and offer explanations as to why it can be shown that knowledge is possible despite scepticism.
The sceptic is externally dissatisfied with the possible methods of proof of the truth of our knowledge claims. He not only says that there are no foundations of human knowledge but also that there could never be such foundations in the logical sense ".....his ( the sceptic's) charge against our standards of proof is not that they work badly; he does not suggest there are others which would work better. The ground on which he attacks is they are logically clefective;or if not defective, at any rate logically questionable".3
The sceptical doubt is global as far as the logical grounds of knowledge are concerned. However, the nonsceptical philosophers have always defended themselves in establishing the possibility of knowledge. There are two ways in which they have reacted to the sceptic's challenge :(1) to show that the sceptic is wrong, because our knowledge of the world has foundations in our cognitive capacities and (2) to show that what the sceptic says is meaningless because to doubt all that we know is impossible and is also inconsistent."
There are many philosophers, especially analytic thinkers who have tried to give an account of what knowledge is which would suffice to undermine crucial sceptical moves. Hence they have confirmed the possibility that some of our beliefs are justified. The two approaches to the nature of justification include foundationalism and coherentism.
Perhaps the most influential position in epislemology is classical foundationalism. Discussion of justification, of what it is for a belief to be justified begins with this theory. Foundationalism is a research programme which sets out to show how it is that our beliefs about an external world, about science, about a past and a future, about other minds etc. can be justified on a base which is restricted to infallible beliefs about our sensory states. It is suggested that if we can do this the demands of epistemology are satisfied. If not we relapse into scepticism.
The faith in the ultimate basis of knowledge in reason led rationalists like Descartes ( innate, self- evident ideas) to investigate the foundations of knowledge just like empiricists were inspired by the idea that sense - experience can provide the needed foundations to scientific knowledge regarding the world ( thinkers like John Locke).Kant through his discovery of the apriori foundations of human knowledge offered a foundationalist response to the sceptic. Among the analytic thinkers, Rudolf Carnap and A.J.Ayer are strong advocates of foundationalism who have given the lead to analytic epistemology in the domain of senseexperience.
531
