FREE ESSAY ON KNOWLEDGE VS SKEPTICISM

KNOWLEDGE VS SKEPTICISM

Knowledge Versus Skepticism
In this essay I will explain that it is impossible to know that you know something, and
therefore that being skeptic is not a radical way of thinking, but a logical thought
process. It is important for healthy skepticism to keep our minds open to new ideas, and
to prevent us from becoming unthinking dogmatists with no individuality. If there were no
one in the world to doubt, than we'd all still believe the world is flat and science
would never exist. Skepticism is a healthy outlook that doesn't hinder our society, as
some may have you believe, but benefits it.
To begin we should define the requirements for knowledge. The four requirements for
knowledge are:
S knows that P iff...
1.) S knows that P is true.
2.) S believes that P is true.
3.) S is justified in believing that P is true.
4.) S's justification in believing that P does not rest on any false beliefs.
Without these requirements, you cannot have knowledge. Your thought may still be true,
however, you cannot know something if it is possible it is not true. This brings us to
how you know if what you think is true. However, it is impossible for us to have this
certainty. Infallible knowledge is impossible for humans to obtain based on the fact that
there is always a chance that we are mistaken. Yet, the Epistimist argues: "The
refutation of skepticism is pure and simple. I know that there is a piece of paper in
front of me, for I see a piece of paper in front of me. Skepticism says that I do not
know this. Therefore skepticism is wrong." However, just as in the Epistemist's example,
the only way we can obtain knowledge is through our five senses. Weather we learn
something from a class lecture, reading a book, or touching something; we are relying on
our senses to convey the "knowledge" to us. However, it is possible for our senses to
trick us. The skeptic argument is that if we can believe we are awake when we are in fact
dreaming in our beds, then we can be dreaming at any moment and not know it. In this way,
our senses are tricking us. When we hear something in our dream, there is nothing
actually making that noise, it is something we only think we hear because we are
dreaming. In our dreams we can have any sensual experience we perceive while we are
awake, yet while we are dreaming, we are being fooled by our senses into thinking things
that do not exist are real. Since all our information about the world comes from our
senses, and our senses can fool us at any time, we can therefore never be sure we have
any knowledge about the world. The Epistemist may again argue this point, delivering ways
of deciphering weather or not you are truly experiencing something or hallucinating
through a dream, such as another's testimony. However, many magicians make their living
by performing illusions in front of large audiences. In this case everyone experiences
the same illusion, yet none of them know the truth.
If you have ever been deceived by someone, perhaps even someone you have trusted for a
long period of time, you know that it is much harder to trust that person from that point
on. Many people would in fact choose not to believe a word that came out of that person's
mouth ever again. If that person has lied to you once, than surely the possibility of
them lying to you again is not out of the question. The same can be applied to just about
anything in life. If as a child you touched a hotplate and ended up burning your hand,
chances are you will be careful before touching it again, making sure you have sufficient
evidence that it is not turned on. Why then, do we put such infinite trust in our senses
that have also wronged us on occasion? Since we can prove that it is possible for our
senses to deceive us, than therefore it is always possible that they are deceiving us.
Thus, we are forced to be skeptic about weather or not we can really know something, or
if we are merely being fooled by our own senses.