Skepticism

This article is about the philosophy. For the metal band,

see Skepticism (band).
Skeptic and Skeptics redirect here. For other uses,
see Skeptic (disambiguation).

3. the arbitrariness, relativity, or subjectivity of moral

values,
4. the limitations of knowledge,
5. a method of intellectual caution and suspended
judgment.

Skepticism or scepticism (see spelling dierences) is

generally any questioning attitude towards unempirical
knowledge or opinions/beliefs stated as facts,[1] or doubt
regarding claims that are taken for granted elsewhere.[2]

2 Philosophical skepticism

Philosophical skepticism is a systematic approach that

questions the notion that absolutely certain knowledge
is possible.[3] Classical philosophical skepticism derives
from the 'Skeptikoi', a school who asserted nothing.[4]
Adherents of Pyrrhonism (and more recently, partially
synonymous with Fallibilism), for instance, suspend judgment in investigations.[5] Skeptics may even doubt the
reliability of their own senses.[6] Religious skepticism,
on the other hand, is doubt concerning basic religious principles (such as immortality, providence, and
revelation)".[7] Scientic skepticism is about testing beliefs for reliability, by subjecting them to systematic
investigation using the scientic method, to discover
empirical evidence for them.

Main article: 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 itself
would be a truth claim), instead it recommends suspending belief. The term is commonly used to describe
philosophies which are similar to philosophical skepticism, such as academic skepticism, an ancient variant of
Platonism that claimed knowledge of truth was impossible. Empiricism is a closely related, but not identical, philosophy to philosophical skepticism. Empiricists claim
empiricism is a pragmatic compromise between philosophical skepticism and nomothetic science; philosophical skepticism is in turn sometimes referred to as radical
empiricism.

Denition

skepticism originated in ancient

In ordinary usage, skepticism (US) or scepticism (UK) Western Philosophical
[8]
Greek
philosophy.
The
Greek Sophists of the 5th cen(Greek: '' skeptomai, to think, to look about,
tury
BC
were
partially
skeptics.
to consider; see also spelling dierences) refers to:
Pyrrho of Elis (365275 BC) is usually credited with
1. an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity founding the school of skepticism. He traveled to India and studied with the gymnosophists (naked lovers
either in general or toward a particular object;
of wisdom), which could have been any number of In2. the doctrine that true knowledge or some particular dian sects. From there, he brought back the idea that
knowledge is uncertain; or
nothing can be known for certain. The senses are easily fooled, and reason follows too easily our desires.[9]
3. the method of suspended judgment, systematic Pyrrhonism was a school of skepticism founded by his foldoubt, or criticism that is characteristic of skeptics lower Aenesidemus in the rst century BC and recorded
(MerriamWebster).
by Sextus Empiricus in the late 2nd century or early
3rd century AD. Subsequently, in the New Academy
In philosophy, skepticism refers more specically to any Arcesilaus (c. 315241 BC) and Carneades (c. 213129
one of several propositions. These include propositions BC) developed more theoretical perspectives by which
about:
conceptions of absolute truth and falsity were refuted as
uncertain. Carneades criticized the claims of the Dogmatists, especially supporters of Stoicism, asserting that ab1. an inquiry,
solute certainty of knowledge is impossible. Sextus Em2. a method of obtaining knowledge through system- piricus (c. AD 200), the main authority for Greek skepatic doubt and continual testing,
ticism, developed the philosophy further, incorporating
1

5 SEE ALSO

aspects of empiricism into the basis for asserting knowl- of certain kinds of claims by subjecting them to a sysedge.
tematic investigation using some form of the scientic
[11]
Greek skeptics criticized the Stoics, accusing them of method. As a result, a number of claims are considered
dogmatism. For the skeptics, the logical mode of argu- "pseudoscience" if they are found to improperly apply or
ment was untenable, as it relied on propositions which ignore the fundamental aspects of the scientic method.
could not be said to be either true or false without relying Scientic skepticism may discard beliefs pertaining to
on further propositions. This was the regress argument, things outside perceivable observation and thus outside
whereby every proposition must rely on other proposi- the realm of systematic, empirical falsiability/testability.
tions in order to maintain its validity (see the ve tropes
of Agrippa the Sceptic). 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, skepticism was established by
Al-Ghazali (10581111), known in the West as Algazel, as part of the Ash'ari school of Islamic theology, whose method of skepticism shares many similarities with Descartes method.[10]
In an eort to avoid skepticism, Ren Descartes begins
his Meditations on First Philosophy attempting to nd indubitable truth on which to base his knowledge. He later
recognizes this truth as "I think, therefore I am, but before he nds this truth, he briey entertains the skeptical
arguments from dreaming and radical deception.
David Hume has also been described as a skeptic.
Pierre Le Morvan (2011) has distinguished between three
philosophical approaches to skepticism. The rst he
terms the Foil Approach. According to this approach,
skepticism is treated as a problem to be solved, or challenge to be met, or threat to be parried; skepticisms value
according to this method, insofar as it is deemed to have
one, accrues from its role as a foil contrastively illuminating what is required for knowledge and justied belief.
The second he calls the Bypass Approach according to
which skepticism is bypassed as a major concern of epistemology. Le Morvan advocates a third approachhe
dubs it the Health Approachthat explores when skepticism is healthy and when it is not, or when it is virtuous
and when it is vicious.

4 Religious skepticism
Main article: Religious skepticism
Religious skepticism generally refers to doubting given
religious beliefs or claims. Historically, religious skepticism can be traced back to Socrates, who doubted many
religious claims of the time. Modern religious skepticism typically emphasizes scientic and historical methods or evidence, with Michael Shermer writing that it is a
process for discovering the truth rather than general nonacceptance. For this reason a religious skeptic might believe that Jesus existed while questioning claims that he
was the messiah or performed miracles (see historicity of
Jesus). Religious skepticism is not the same as atheism
or agnosticism, though these often do involve skeptical
attitudes toward religion and philosophical theology (for
example, towards divine omnipotence). Religious people are generally skeptical about claims of other religions,
at least when the two denominations conict concerning
some stated belief. Additionally, they may also be skeptical of the claims made by atheists.[12] The historian Will
Durant writes that Plato was as skeptical of atheism as
of any other dogma.[13]

5 See also
A Brief History of Disbelief 3-part PBS series
(2007).
Critical thinking
Debunker (one who exposes claims as being false).
Denialism
Doubt
Richard Popkin

Scientic skepticism

Main article: Scientic skepticism

Pseudoskepticism
Scientic skepticism
Scientism

A scientic (or empirical) skeptic is one who questions

beliefs on the basis of scientic understanding. Most
scientists, being scientic skeptics, test the reliability

Trivialism (opposite of skepticism)

List of topics characterized as pseudoscience

5.1

Literary skeptics

[Link]

Ambrose Bierce: The Devils Dictionary

The Freethinker (journal)

Ignacy Krasicki: Fables and Parables

The Skeptic

Herman Melville: Moby-Dick, other works

The Skeptics Dictionary

Montaigne: Essais.

The Skeptics Guide to the Universe

Bolesaw Prus: Pharaoh

The Straight Dope

Emily Rosa: A Close Look at Therapeutic Touch,

Journal of the American Medical Association, April
1, 1998; 279(13):10051010.[14]
Voltaire: Candide

5.2

Organizations

Australian Skeptics
Brights movement
Center for Inquiry
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
Independent Investigations Group
James Randi Educational Foundation

6 Notes
[1] Popkin, R. H. The History of Skepticism from Erasmus
to Descartes (rev. ed. 1968); C. L. Stough, Greek Skepticism (1969); M. Burnyeat, ed., The Skeptical Tradition
(1983); B. Stroud, The Signicance of Philosophical Skepticism (1984). [Link].
[2] Philosophical views are typically classed as skeptical
when they involve advancing some degree of doubt regarding claims that are elsewhere taken for granted.
[Link]
[3] Philosophical skepticism should be distinguished from
ordinary skepticism, where doubts are raised against certain beliefs or types of beliefs because the evidence for
the particular belief or type of belief is weak or lacking
... [Link]

New England Skeptical Society

[4] Liddell and Scott

New Zealand Skeptics

[5] Sextus Empiricus, Outlines Of Pyrrhonism, Translated by

R. G. Bury, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1933, p. 21

Rationalist International
Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science
SKEPP (Belgian association of skeptics)

[6] "... the two most inuential forms of skepticism have, arguably, been the radical epistemological skepticism of the
classical Pyrrhonian skeptics and the Cartesian form of
radical epistemological skepticism [Link]

Skepsis ry (Finnish association of skeptics)

[7] MerriamWebster

Skeptics in the Pub

[8] Scepticism History of Scepticism Archived 9 February

2012 at the Wayback Machine

The Skeptics Society

5.3

Media

FactCheck
MythBusters
Penn & Teller: Bullshit!
Point of Inquiry
Skeptic (U.S. magazine)
Skeptical Inquirer
Skepticality
Skeptoid

[9] Boeree, Dr. C. George. The Ancient Greeks, Part

Three:". Shippensburg University. Retrieved 31 May
2013.
[10] Najm, Sami M. (JulyOctober 1966), The Place and
Function of Doubt in the Philosophies of Descartes and
Al-Ghazali, Philosophy East and West (Philosophy East
and West, Vol. 16, No. 3/4) 16 (34): 133141,
doi:10.2307/1397536, JSTOR 1397536
[11] [Link]: What is skepticism?
[12] Mann, Daniel. Skeptical of Atheism. Apologetics for
Today. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
[13] Durant, Will (1944). Caesar and Christ: The Story of Civilization. Simon & Schuster. p. 164.
[14] JAMA Network | JAMA | A Close Look at Therapeutic
Touch. [Link]. Retrieved 2014-01-27.

Sources
A Greek-English Lexicon, Henry George Liddell and
Robert Scott, revised and augmented throughout by
Sir Henry Stuart Jones, with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK, 1940.
Online, [Link].

Skepticism entry by Peter Klein in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Ancient Greek Skepticism entry by Katja Vogt in the
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Ancient Greek Skepticism entry by Harald Thorsrud
in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Butchvarov, Panayot, Skepticism About the External

World (Oxford University Press, 1998).

Medieval Skepticism entry by Charles Bolyard in the

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Daniels, M.D., D.; Price, PhD, V. (2000), The Essential Enneagram, New York: HarperCollins

Contemporary Skepticism entry by Duncan

Pritchard in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Richard Hnigswald, Die Skepsis in Philosophie und

Wissenschaft, 1914, new edition (ed. and introduction by Christian Benne and Thomas Schirren), Gttingen: Edition Ruprecht, 2008, ISBN 978-3-76753056-0

Skeptical Inquiry at DMOZ

Keeton, Morris T., skepticism, pp. 277278 in

Dagobert D. Runes (ed.), Dictionary of Philosophy, Littleeld, Adams, and Company, Totowa, NJ,
1962.
Le Morvan, P. Healthy Skepticism and Practical Wisdom, Logos & Episteme II, 1 (2011): 87-102 (PDF).
Runes, D.D. (ed.), Dictionary of Philosophy, Littleeld, Adams, and Company, Totowa, NJ, 1962.
Websters New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, Unabridged, W.A.
Neilson, T.A. Knott, P.W. Carhart (eds.), G. & C.
Merriam Company, Springeld, MA, 1950.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Further reading

Most Scientic Papers are Probably Wrong,

NewScientist, 30 August 2005
In the Name of Skepticism: Martin Gardners Misrepresentations of General Semantics, by Bruce
I. Kodish, appeared in General Semantics Bulletin,
Number 71, 2004.
Classical Skepticism by Peter Suber
Outstanding skeptics of the 20th century
Skeptical Inquirer magazine
CSICOP and the Skeptics critical essay by paranormal believer George P. Hansen
Nonsense (And Why Its So Popular)" course syllabus from The College of Wooster.
"Scepticism". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York:
Robert Appleton Company. 1913. A Christian
(Catholic) account of scepticism
Media Guide to Skepticism - Doubtful News

Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism, R.G.

Bury (trans.), Prometheus Books, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1933.
Myles Burnyeat (ed.), The Skeptical Tradition,
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
Richard H. Popkin, The History of Scepticism from
Savonarola to Bayle. Third enlarged edition, New
York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19510768-3.
Richard Wilson, Don't Get Fooled Again - The Skeptics Guide to Life, London: Icon Books, 2008. ISBN
978-1-84831-014-8

External links
Skepticism at PhilPapers
Skepticism at the Indiana Philosophy Ontology
Project

The Rise and Fall of Militant Skepticism an essay by

Deepak Chopra

10
10.1

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