Skepticism

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Skepticism

In ordinary usage, skepticism or scepticism (Greek:

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
's??pt?µa?' skeptomai, to look about, to consider; see also spelling differences

American and British English spelling differences

American and British English spelling differences are one aspect of American and British English differences.The spelling systems of Commonwealth of Nations countries, for the most part, closely resemble the British system....
) refers to:

In philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language....
, skepticism refers more specifically to any one of several propositions. These include propositions about:

In classical philosophy, skepticism refers to the teachings and the traits of the "Skeptikoi", a school of philosophers of whom it was said that they "asserted nothing but only opined." (Liddell and Scott) In this sense, philosophical skepticism
Philosophical skepticism

Philosophical skepticism is both a Philosophy school of thought and a method that crosses disciplines and cultures. Many skeptics critically examine the meaning systems of their times, and this examination often results in a position of ambiguity or doubt....
, or Pyrrhonism
Pyrrhonism

Pyrrhonism, or Pyrrhonian skepticism, was a school of skepticism founded by Aenesidemus in the first century BC and recorded by Sextus Empiricus in the late 2nd century or early 3rd century AD....
, is the philosophical position that one should suspend judgement in investigations.

In religion

Religion

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
, skepticism refers to "doubt concerning basic religious principles (as immortality, providence, and revelation)." (Merriam–Webster)

The word skepticism can characterize a position on a single claim, but in scholastic circles more frequently describes a lasting mind-set and an approach to accepting or rejecting new information.

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Encyclopedia

In ordinary usage, skepticism or scepticism (Greek:

Ancient Greek

American and British English spelling differences

(a) an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object;
(b) the doctrine
Doctrine

Doctrine is a codification of beliefs or "a body of teachers" or "instructions", taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system....
that true knowledge
Knowledge

Knowledge is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation....
or knowledge in a particular area is uncertain; or
(c) the method of suspended judgment, systematic doubt, or criticism that is characteristic of skeptics (Merriam–Webster).

In philosophy

Philosophy

(a) an inquiry,
(b) a method of obtaining knowledge through systematic doubt and continual testing,
(c) the arbitrariness, relativity, or subjectivity of moral values,
(d) the limitations of knowledge,
(e) a method of intellectual caution and suspended judgment.

In classical philosophy, skepticism refers to the teachings and the traits of the "Skeptikoi", a school of philosophers of whom it was said that they "asserted nothing but only opined." (Liddell and Scott) In this sense, philosophical skepticism
Philosophical skepticism

Philosophical skepticism is both a Philosophy school of thought and a method that crosses disciplines and cultures. Many skeptics critically examine the meaning systems of their times, and this examination often results in a position of ambiguity or doubt....
, or Pyrrhonism
Pyrrhonism

Pyrrhonism, or Pyrrhonian skepticism, was a school of skepticism founded by Aenesidemus in the first century BC and recorded by Sextus Empiricus in the late 2nd century or early 3rd century AD....
, is the philosophical position that one should suspend judgement in investigations.

In religion

Religion

Philosophical skepticism

In philosophical skepticism, pyrrhonism is a position that refrains from making truth claims. A philosophical skeptic does not claim that truth is impossible (which would be a truth claim). The label is commonly used to describe other philosophies which appear similar to philosophical skepticism, such as "academic" skepticism, an ancient variant of Platonism that claimed knowledge of truth was impossible. Empiricism

Empiricism

In philosophy, empiricism is a theory of knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from experience. Empiricism is one of several competing views about how we know "things," part of the branch of philosophy called epistemology, or "theory of knowledge"....
is a closely related, but not identical, position to philosophical skepticism. Empiricists see empiricism as a pragmatic compromise between philosophical skepticism and nomothetic

Nomothetic

Nomothetic literally means "proposition of the law" and is used in both philosophy and in psychology and in law with differing meanings. In psychology, nomothetic measures are contrasted to ipsative or idiothetic measures, where nomothetic measures are measures that can be taken directly by an outside observer, such as weight or how many ti...
science; philosophical skepticism is in turn sometimes referred to as "radical empiricism."

Philosophical skepticism (in the West) originated in ancient Greek philosophy

Greek philosophy

Greek philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry. Many philosophers today concede that Greek philosophy has shaped the entire Western thought since its inception....
. The Greek Sophists

Sophism

Sophism can mean two very different things: In the modern definition, a sophism is a confusing or illogical argument used for deceiving someone....
of the 5th century BC were for the most part skeptics. Pyrrhonism

Pyrrhonism

Pyrrhonism, or Pyrrhonian skepticism, was a school of skepticism founded by Aenesidemus in the first century BC and recorded by Sextus Empiricus in the late 2nd century or early 3rd century AD....
was a school of skepticism founded by Aenesidemus

Aenesidemus

Aenesidemus was a Greece sceptical philosopher, born in Knossos on the island of Crete. He lived sometime during the 1st century BC, taught in Alexandria and flourished shortly after the life of Cicero....
in the first century BC and recorded by Sextus Empiricus

Sextus Empiricus

Sextus Empiricus , was a physician and philosopher, and has been variously reported to have lived in Alexandria, Rome, or Athens. His philosophical work is the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman skepticism....
in the late 2nd century or early 3rd century AD. One of its first proponents was Pyrrho

Pyrrho

Pyrrho , a Greek philosopher of classical antiquity, is credited as being the first Skeptic philosopher, and the inspiration for the school known as Pyrrhonism founded by Aenesidemus in the 1st century BC....
of Elis

Elis

Elis, or Eleia is an ancient district, that corresponds with the modern Elis Prefecture. It is in southern Greece on the Peloponnesos peninsula, bounded on the north by Achaea, east by Arcadia, south by Messenia, and west by the Ionian Sea....
(c. 360-275 B.C.), who traveled and studied as far as India

Indian philosophy

The term Indian philosophy , may refer to any of several traditions of Eastern philosophy that originated in the Indian subcontinent, including Hindu philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, and Jain philosophy....
and propounded the adoption of "practical" skepticism. Subsequently, in the "New Academy" Arcesilaus

Arcesilaus

Arcesilaus was a Greece philosopher and founder of the Second or Middle Platonic Academy—the skepticism phase of the Academy. Arcesilaus succeeded Crates of Athens as head of the Academy c....
(c. 315-241 B.C.) and Carneades

Carneades

Carneades was a radical skeptic born in Cyrene, Libya and the first of the philosophers to pronounce the failure of metaphysics who endeavored to discover rational meanings in religious beliefs....
(c. 213-129 B.C.) developed more theoretical perspectives, by which conceptions of absolute truth and falsity were refuted as uncertain. Carneades criticized the views of the Dogmatists, especially supporters of Stoicism

Stoicism

Stoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century B.C. The stoics considered passionate emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a Sage , or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not have such emotions....
, asserting that absolute certainty of knowledge is impossible. Sextus Empiricus

Sextus Empiricus

Sextus Empiricus , was a physician and philosopher, and has been variously reported to have lived in Alexandria, Rome, or Athens. His philosophical work is the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman skepticism....
(c. A.D. 200), the main authority for Greek skepticism, developed the position further, incorporating aspects of empiricism

Empiricism

In philosophy, empiricism is a theory of knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from experience. Empiricism is one of several competing views about how we know "things," part of the branch of philosophy called epistemology, or "theory of knowledge"....
into the basis for asserting knowledge.

Greek skeptics criticized the Stoics, accusing them of dogmatism

Dogmatism

Sorry, no overview for this topic
. For the skeptics, the logic

Logic

Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and inference. Logic is a branch of philosophy, a part of the classical Trivium . The word derives from Greek language ?????? , fem....
al mode of argument was untenable, as it relied on propositions which could not be said to be either true or false without relying on further propositions. This was the regress argument

Regress argument

The regress argument is a problem in epistemology and, in general, a problem in any situation where a statement has to be justified.According to this argument, any proposition requires a justification....
, whereby every proposition must rely on other propositions in order to maintain its validity (see the five tropes of Agrippa the Sceptic

Agrippa the Sceptic

Agrippa was a Sceptic philosopher who probably lived towards the end of the 1st century AD. He is regarded as the author of "five grounds of doubt" or tropes , which are purported to establish the impossibility of certain knowledge....
). In addition, the skeptics argued that two propositions could not rely on each other, as this would create a circular argument (as p implies q and q implies p). For the skeptics, such logic was thus an inadequate measure of truth and could create as many problems as it claimed to have solved. Truth was not, however, necessarily unobtainable, but rather an idea which did not yet exist in a pure form. Although skepticism was accused of denying the possibility of truth, in fact it appears to have mainly been a critical school which merely claimed that logicians had not discovered truth.

In Islamic philosophy

Islamic philosophy

Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies, and is a longstanding attempt to create harmony between philosophy and the religious teachings of Islam ....
, skepticism was established by Al-Ghazali

Al-Ghazali

Abu ?amid Mu?ammad ibn Mu?ammad al-Ghazali was born and died in Tus, in the Khorasan province of Persia. He was an Islamic theology, Fiqh, Islamic philosophy, Islamic astronomy, Islamic psychology and Sufism of Persian people origin, and remains one of the most celebrated scholars in the history of Sunni Islamic thought....
(1058-1111), known in the West as "Algazel", as part of the orthodox Ash'ari

Ash'ari

The Ash?ari theology is a school of early Kalam founded by the theologian Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari . The disciples of the school are known as Ash'arites, and the school is also referred to as Ash'arite school....
school of Islamic theology

Islamic theology

Islamic theology is a branch of Islamic studies regarding the beliefs associated with the Islamic faith....
. It has been argued that René Descartes

René Descartes

Ren? Descartes , , also known as Renatus Cartesius , was a French philosophy, mathematician, scientist, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic....
' ideas from Discourse on the Method may have been influenced by the work of Al-Ghazali, whose method of skepticism shares many similarities with Descartes' method.

René Descartes

René Descartes

Thought experiment

A thought experiment , sometimes called a Gedanken experiment, is a proposal for an experiment that would test or illuminate a hypothesis or theory....
in his attempt to find absolute certainty on which to base the foundation of his philosophy. David Hume

David Hume

David Hume was a Scotland philosopher, economist, historian and a key figure in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment....
has also been described as a global skeptic. However, Descartes was not himself a skeptic and developed his theory of an absolute certainty to disprove other skeptics who argued that there is no certainty.

Scientific skepticism

A scientific (or empirical

Empirical

The word empirical denotes information gained by means of observation, experience, or experiment, as opposed to theory. A central concept in science and the scientific method is that all evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, that is, dependent on evidence or Logical consequence that are observable by the senses....
) skeptic is one who questions the reliability of certain kinds of claims by subjecting them to a systematic investigation. The scientific method

Scientific method

Scientific method refers to techniques for investigating phenomenon, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and Measure evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning....
details the specific process by which this investigation of reality

Reality

Reality, in everyday usage, means "the state of things as they actually exist". In a sense it is what is real. The term reality, in its widest sense, includes everything that being, whether or not it is observation or comprehension....
is conducted. Considering the rigor of the scientific method, science itself may simply be thought of as an organized form of skepticism. This does not mean that the scientific skeptic is necessarily a scientist who conducts live experiments (though this may be the case), but that the skeptic generally accepts claims that are in his/her view likely to be true based on testable hypotheses and critical thinking

Critical thinking

Critical thinking is purposeful and reflective judgment about what to believe or do in response to observations, experience, Interpersonal communication or writing expressions, or arguments....
.

Common topics that scientifically-skeptical literature questions include health claims surrounding certain foods, procedures, and medicines, such as homeopathy

Homeopathy

File:LedumPalustre15CH.jpgHomeopathy is a form of alternative medicine first expounded by Samuel Hahnemann in 1796, that treats a disease with heavily diluted preparations created from substances that would ordinarily cause effects similar to the disease's symptoms....
, Reiki

Reiki

is a spiritual practice developed in 1922 by Mikao Usui. After three weeks of fasting and meditating on Mount Kurama, in Japan, Usui claimed to receive the ability of "healing without energy depletion"....
, Thought Field Therapy

Thought Field Therapy

Thought Field Therapy, or TFT, is fringe science List of psychotherapies developed by an American psychologist, Roger Callahan. Its proponents say that it can heal of a variety of mental and physical ailments through specialized "tapping" with the fingers at meridian points on the upper body and hands....
(TFT), vertebral subluxation

Vertebral subluxation

Vertebral subluxation is a chiropractic term that is used to describe a myriad of signs and symptoms thought to occur as a result of a misaligned or dysfunctional vertebral column joint....
s; the plausibility and existence of supernatural

Supernatural

The term supernatural or supranatural pertains to an order of existence beyond the scientifically visible universe. Religious miracles are typically supernatural claims, as are Spell and curses, divination, the belief that there is an afterlife for the dead, and innumerable others....
entities (such as ghosts, poltergeists, angels, and gods

Deity

A deity is a postulated preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divinity, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by human beings....
as well as the existence of ESP

Extra-sensory perception

Extrasensory perception is the apparent ability to acquire information by paranormal means independent of any known physical senses or deduction from previous experience....
/telekinesis, psychic

Psychic

The word psychic refers to a proposed ability to perception information hidden from the senses through what is described as extrasensory perception, or to those people said to have such abilities....
powers, and telepathy

Telepathy

Telepathy describes the purported transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the Senses#Five classical senses ....
, and thus the credibility of parapsychology

Parapsychology

Parapsychology is a discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and Survivalism using the scientific method....
); topics in cryptozoology

Cryptozoology

Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience focused on the search for animals which are considered to be fictional or otherwise nonexistent by mainstream biology....
, Bigfoot

Bigfoot

Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is an alleged ape-like creature purportedly inhabiting forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America....
, the Loch Ness monster

Loch Ness Monster

The Loch Ness Monster is a creature alleged to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland and elsewhere, though its description varies from one account to the next....
, alien visitations

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life which does not originate from Earth. It is the subject of astrobiology and its existence remains hypothetical, because there is no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life which has been generally accepted by the mainstream scientific community....
, UFOs, crop circles

Crop Circles

Crop Circles was a collaboration between the psychedelic trance band Etnica and a Milanese group called Lotus Omega . An album, entitled "Tetrahedron", should have been released around 1998, but the project was abandoned because the British label Auracle Recordings went bankrupt....
, astrology

Astrology

Astrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of astronomical object and related details can provide useful information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters....
, repressed memories, creationism

Creationism

Creationism is the religious belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were Creation myth in their original form by a deity or deities....
/intelligent design

Intelligent design

Intelligent design is the term used for the assertion that "certain features of the universe and of life are best explained by an intelligent causality, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God that avoids specifying the nature or identity of th...
, dowsing

Dowsing

Dowsing, sometimes called divining, doodlebugging , or water finding or water witching, is a practice that attempts to locate hidden water wells, buried metals or ores, gemstones, or other objects as well as currents of earth radiation without the use of scientific apparatus....
, conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theory

A conspiracy theory alleges a coordinated group is, or was, secretly working to commit illegal or wrongful actions, including attempting to hide the existence of the group and its activities....
, and other claims the skeptic sees as unlikely to be true on scientific grounds.

Empirical or scientific skeptics do not profess philosophical skepticism. Whereas a philosophical skeptic may deny the very existence of knowledge, an empirical skeptic merely seeks likely proof before accepting that knowledge.

Activist skepticism

Activist skeptics, self-described "debunker

Debunker

A debunker is an individual who discredits and exposes claims as being false, exaggerated or pretentious. The term is closely associated with scientific skepticism of topics such as Unidentified flying objects, claimed paranormal phenomena, conspiracy theories, alternative medicine, religion, research outside mainstream science or pseudoscie...
s" are a subset of scientific skeptics who aim to expose in public what they see as the truth behind specific extraordinary claims. Debunkers may publish books, air TV programs, create websites, or use other means to advocate their message. In some cases they may challenge claimants outright or even stage elaborate hoax

Hoax

A hoax is a deliberate attempt to dupe, deceive or deception an audience into believing, or accepting, that something is real, when in fact it is not; or that something is true, when in fact it is false....
es to prove their point, such as Project Alpha

Project Alpha

Project Alpha was an elaborate hoax orchestrated by the stage magician and skeptic James Randi. It involved planting two fake psychics, Banachek and Michael Edwards, into a paranormal research project....
.

Because debunkers often challenge popular ideas, many are not strangers to controversy. Critics of debunkers sometimes accuse them of robbing others of hope. Debunkers frequently reply that it is the claimant, whom they many times accuse of exploiting public gullibility, who is guilty of abuse.

Religious skepticism

Religious skepticism is skepticism regarding faith-based claims. Religious skeptics may focus on the core tenets of religions, such as the existence of divine beings or reports of earthly miracle

Miracle

File:Folio 171r - The Raising of Lazarus.jpgA miracle is a sensibly perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can only be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle-worker....
s. A religious skeptic is not necessarily an atheist or agnostic.

Bogus skepticism

Advocates of discredited intellectual positions such as AIDS denial or Holocaust denial

Holocaust denial

Holocaust denial is the claim that the genocide of Jews during World War II?usually referred to as the Holocaust?did not occur in the manner or to the extent described by current scholarship....
will sometimes seek to characterize themselves as "skeptics". Genuine skeptics seek to apply doubt impartially and systematically, forming their beliefs through a balanced evaluation of the evidence. Bogus skeptics cherry pick evidence on the basis of a pre-existing belief, seizing on data, however tenuous, that appears to support their position, while declaring themselves "skeptical" of any evidence, however compelling, that undermines it. According to Richard Wilson, who highlights the phenomenon in his book Don't Get Fooled Again (2008), the characteristic feature of bogus skepticism is that it "centres not on an impartial search for the truth, but on the defence of a preconceived ideological position".

External links

Kleiner, Kurt (2005), "Most Scientific Papers are Probably Wrong", NewScientist, 30 Aug 2005
, paper about philosophical skepticism
, explained at the Galilean Library
A critique of Martin Gardner, ," by Bruce I. Kodish, appeared in General Semantics Bulletin, Number 71, 2004. The Bulletin is published by the Institute of General Semantics
Institute of General Semantics

The Institute of General Semantics is a not-for-profit corporation established in 1938 by Alfred Korzybski, to support research and publication on the topic of General Semantics....
J C Lester,
Peter Suber
Peter Suber

Peter Suber is the creator of the game Nomic and a leading voice in the open access movement. He is the senior research professor of philosophy at Earlham College, the open access project director at Public Knowledge, and a senior researcher at SPARC ....
, . An exposition of Pyrrho
Pyrrho

Pyrrho , a Greek philosopher of classical antiquity, is credited as being the first Skeptic philosopher, and the inspiration for the school known as Pyrrhonism founded by Aenesidemus in the 1st century BC....
's skepticism through the writings of Sextus Empiricus
Sextus Empiricus

Sextus Empiricus , was a physician and philosopher, and has been variously reported to have lived in Alexandria, Rome, or Athens. His philosophical work is the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman skepticism....
- Skeptical Inquirer
Skeptical Inquirer

The Skeptical Inquirer is a bimonthly, United States magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry with the subtitle: The magazine for science and reason....
Magazine
A course syllabus from The College of Wooster.
, Reader-submitted essays on skepticism and critical thinking

Skepticism

Philosophical skepticism

Scientific skepticism

Activist skepticism

Religious skepticism

Bogus skepticism

Further reading

See also

Literary skeptics

Organizations

Media

External links