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Maxwell Gibson

Mr. Buescher

Philosophy

March 16, 2017

Epistemology Essay: Skepticism

Epistemology, the area of philosophy that questions the nature and certainty of

knowledge, and also suggest various theories of how we obtain and know that we have

undoubtedly knowledge. The biggest problem with identifying what we know is that ultimately,

we cannot say that beyond a shadow of a doubt, we necessarily know anything. We may be

able to say that we have belief that we know something, or that a statement is true or has

justification but there is always ways to disprove those theories. There are several claims that

attempt to answer these questions. Skepticism is the claim that we do not have knowledge at

all. Rationalism is the claim that reason or intellect is the primary source of obtaining knowledge.

Empiricism is the claim that knowledge about the world is gained through sensory experiences. I

side more with skepticism; how can we find actual justification for any belief? Most knowledge

we claim to have about the world derives from accepted ideas. The experiences that we learn

from are merely sensory experiences. There are very few things that cannot be doubted at all,

that we have 100% undoubtable knowledge of.

For something to be considered knowledge it has to be a true, justified, belief. Many

statements and accusations that are made are reasonable, and make sense, but they can never

be justified with pure knowledge. There is no justification for what we accept as humans to be

morally right or wrong. How can anyone say that theft is wrong? There is no evidence or

justification for the claim. Religion is one of the main topic for skeptics to criticize. There is no

evidence toward the legitimacy or fallacy of any type of religious belief. A follower of any religion
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cannot know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that what they instill their faith in is actually the

“right” or “true” religion. Furthermore, skepticism is a very thorough process of cleansing any

idea or belief from doubts about the justification. By questioning the reasons you think a belief to

hold truth, and then questioning those reasons, you arrive at the reasons for the most

fundamental belief. If you apply this to the knowledge we claim to have about the world you find

that almost everything we claim to know can be doubted. The only thing that can be known

beyond a shadow of a doubt is my existence.

The theories/ideas/examples that try to come up with means of explaining knowledge

always have certain fundamental aspects to the claim that are based on accepted ideas. A

rationalists may say “A square has four sides”. Now, for all intensive purposes yes, this

statement is true. Although this statement is relatively and mathematically true, i could ask how

do they know it's a square just from the simple definition, a rectangle, and parallelogram both

have four sides but are not squares. If i were to ask the question “what makes you happy”,

someone may answer with an activity they like to participate in, or maybe something

materialistic. Omnisciently I could say that they only thing that makes them happy is the

impulses that they're brain receives from the thing they claim to bring happiness. Besides this i

could ask, what is happiness, or how do they know that the feeling they are experiencing is

actually happiness. Lastly, someone may say they know an object is blue. The color that this

person is saying the object is is just a shade of light refraction that as a society deem as the

color blue. That person didn't really know the object is blue, they were just referring the name

the hue is universally understood/accepted as.

The final avenue in which skeptics can doubt our knowledge of the world is through our

very own senses. We are, in a way, deceived by our senses everyday. When I order a

hamburger from a restaurant, I can see, feel, smell, and taste the burger, but who is to disprove
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the theory that it is a very deep persistent illusion. This idea suggests that everything in life is

just one big illusion, and that what we believe to be our reality is just electrical impulses sent

from our senses to the brain telling us it is a hamburger indeed. If someone were to tell you a

pan were hot, you can't agree that you know the pan it is actually hot. The only thing that

indicates the temperature is high enough to be “hot” is your sense of touch. Even then you don't

know what you're feeling actually is hot. Skeptics can make the argument that we are all just

brains in a vat being stimulated by electronic impulses thinking we are going about life. There is

no way of disproving this statement as radical as is it.

There is no way we can find actual justification for any belief, knowledge we claim to

have about the world derives from accepted ideas, and the experiences that we learn from are

merely sensory experiences. These three main ideas of skepticism highlight the main reasons

we cannot be certain we have any knowledge. The topic sentences of each of the paragraphs

was proven by examples provided from everyday experiences. If we cannot trust the knowledge

we gain from our experiences in life, and we cannot trust justification of accepted ideas just

because the next person says it's true, then we cannot trust any knowledge gained from

personal experiences.