Skepticism

by Gregory Alter,

Skepticism is a key tool in philosophy. Socrates used it to uncover untruths, false beliefs, opinion and speculation. It is an attitude of doubt or incredulity towards knowledge or assertions. It is closely connected with understanding the limitations of knowledge.

When Descartes discovered his famous philosophical statement “Cogito ergo sum” (latin: “I think, therefore I am.”) he was himself skeptical about how we could know anything. How can we know what is the truth? How can we know that we do know anything, really, truly? All might be an illusion. Descartes asked himself, “how can I know that I exist?” In answer he discovered that since he was able to question his own existence, then he has to exist to do so.

In a way Descartes discovery was the ultimate in skepticism, and indeed it led directly to the ultimate answer; no longer can we doubt our own existence, but that did not help us in determining the existence of everything else. What if the whole universe is an illusion? Alas, the answer to that one is not so forthcoming.

Still it is important, in this modern world, to question everything we are told. Especially anything that involves common sense. This may seem as a paradox, as many people believe philosophy to be 'common sense' but in reality common sense is ingrained within us by the society in which we live and is connected with culture and belief systems. The danger of common sense is that one can be swept off into believing that common sense answers everything and tells us all we need to know about reality.

How do we know that we 'need' to work for example? Those who do not work, may in fact be happy not working (assuming they have social benefits or some other means to sustain themselves) but they will find themselves being subject to a large amount of pressure from society. Helpful friends and relatives will hint, help, and pester them to work, and try to find them a 'job'.

Our ancestors were hunters, and it is now believed that hunter societies had a large amount of free time for themselves and social activities. Would that not be ideal? Free time to do what you like? To enjoy life? These days however the possibility of returning to a hunter gather society is nonexistent, but nevertheless the realization that there are other ways of structuring society are key to the process of overcoming fixed beliefs. In actuality, growing food requires a large amount of labor and time (in comparison to hunting).

It was the transition to settled farming communities which created the need for laborers. In early communities this was a shared task, but as time proceeded communities became larger and the society more stratified, leaving the lowest and poorest with the burden of the work. This state of affairs was amplified throughout human history culminating with the serf of the middle ages.

The consumerism of modern times, one might think, differs from these earlier and barbaric times, but looking closely at the distribution of wealth, one sees that the system is different but we are still ruled by an elite few. We do not notice because we have choices, and a myriad of Orwellian controls, and a myriad of Bradburyian distractions (video walls almost upon us), but it is the way things are. Capitalism takes raw materials, and labor, and combines them to create a product that can be sold. The greater good in Capitalism is profit, and for the creation of that profit, a poorer lass of people are necessary to provide cheap labor (to keep costs down and profits up). And it needs a healthy mobile workforce for it to work (hence we are better off than the serfs of earlier systems). Our whole society is crafted to create the appearance of choice, it is a 'you can do anything you want to' Walt Disney society, which at the same time ignores the deep social problems that are guaranteed to ensure people can't have that freedom at all. If there was no poor, then who would make the goods?

The educational system ingrains in us sets of beliefs that society wants us to have, and these are convenient for society, but not necessarily for the individual. Those who do not go along with society are classed as deviants, and society tries to help them, and if they cannot be helped it shuns them. Back to the analogy of someone who doesn't work, it is assumed that he or she would be terribly bored and needs direction and structure in their lives. Even if that individual had their own sense of purpose, and plenty with which to fill up his or her day, others would not be able to recognize it, because society has taught them a system of beliefs in which the only purpose an individual should have; is to work.

The danger is that most people believe that their common sense is an innate sense of reality. Common sense represents, common reality; the consensus of the mob, it is a form of mass hallucination.

From this one example we have seen the power of skepticism to unravel commonly held beliefs. We may not necessarily be able to do anything about them, we may even have to unravel our own beliefs, and then unravel our own beliefs about our beliefs. But at least we know that it is an illusion, we can draw comfort from the widom being skeptical grants us. Skepticism, scrapes away at everything like an archaeologist brushing fine layers of soil off of a piece of pottery. It is an important and useful tool in the Philosopher's armory.