The Pros And Cons Of Skepticism

Skepticism is a philosophy which states that no knowledge is certain. Some skeptics doubt everything which cannot be proved by the evidence of the senses, others doubt everything including the reliability of the senses. While the first skeptics were the sophists of ancient Greece, more recent skeptics include Renee Descartes and David Hume.
Our senses naturally represent the world as being a particular way. We see the world as having rocks and trees, people and animals, all existing at some distance from our physical bodies in a physical space. We tend to believe whatever our senses “tell us”. We have a visual experience of something, and, since our visual experience has been proven reliable, we assume we inhabit a world in which that something

1) Right now it seems to me that I am giving a lecture
2) Either I am awake and perceiving that this is so, or I am asleep and dreaming that this is so
3) I am justified in believing that I am giving a lecture only if I can rule out the hypothesis that I am dreaming
4) There are no internal indications by which I can distinguish waking from dreaming
5) I cannot rule out the hypothesis that I am now dreaming
6) I am not justified in believing on the basis of my experience that I am giving a

There are hundreds of “levels” of skepticism which have developed, but which are mainly divided into two groups: local, or radical skepticism. While radical skeptics are few and far between, local skeptics are everywhere. A local skeptic chooses which theories to believe and which to question. In all, this is an unsafe way to live. Even radical skepticism gives some form of reliability in that it argues with everything. Local skepticism is commonly found in people who believe only pieces of the Bible, but disbelieve certain pieces of evidence. When living a life of faith, there is no room for picking and choosing. Philosophical Skepticism is attributed to originating with the ancient Greeks, developing further with Renee Descartes, in around 1620. David Hume followed in his footsteps, destroying the popular theory of causality in the early 1700s. Skepticism is still alive and well today, much to the harm of