Skepticism(Greek - considering) - a philosophical direction that expresses doubt about the possibility of reliable knowledge of objective truth. Skeptics raise doubt to a principle; regarding each subject, they say, two mutually exclusive opinions are permissible - affirmation and denial, and therefore such knowledge about things is not reliable. Skepticism as a philosophical movement originated in ancient Greece; its founder. Pyrrho (c. 360-270 BC) is considered.
According to ancient skeptics, the belief in the impossibility of knowing things should lead in theory to “abstinence from judgment”, and in practice to ensure an indifferent, dispassionate attitude towards objects - “serenity” of the soul. Marx noted that the teachings of the ancient skeptics reflected the degeneration of the once strong ancient philosophical thought. During the Renaissance, skepticism was filled with a different content and played a significant role in the fight against medieval ideology and in undermining the authority of the church.
Skepticism as a denial in principle of the possibility of knowing objective truth is refuted by the entire historical development of sciences and the experience of mankind, which confirm the position of Marxist philosophy about the knowability of the world. Dialectical materialism proceeds from the fact that there are no unknowable things in the world, that still unknown things will be revealed and known through the forces of science and practice. Skepticism cannot bring anything but sophistical arguments in support of its opinion about the unknowability of things.
Marxist materialism, in its assertion of the knowability of the world, is based on irrefutable evidence of practice, practical activity. Practice inexorably exposes every false, unscientific position and, on the contrary, confirms every true, scientific truth. If, as skeptics say, people cannot know the true essence of things, then it is not clear how people exist, i:6o their existence presupposes knowledge of the objective laws of nature and influence on nature with the aim of its subordination to man. Not only people, but even animals could not biologically adapt to the conditions around them if their ideas, within the limits available to them, did not correspond to the perceived phenomena.
Man, unlike animals, creates instruments of production with the help of which he remakes nature and in the process of changing nature learns the deepest secrets of things. “Knowledge,” says Lenin, “can be biologically useful, useful in human practice, in preserving life, in preserving the species, only if it reflects an objective truth independent of man. For the materialist, the “success” of human practice proves the conformity of ours. ideas about the objective nature of the things we perceive." The widespread skepticism in modern bourgeois philosophy, the propaganda of the “powerlessness of reason” by bourgeois ideologists, testifies to the decay of the culture of capitalism and represents one of the forms of struggle against science and scientific materialism.
Now the question of who a skeptic is is more pressing than ever. Too much information circulates around a person every day. And he must necessarily have a healthy dose of disbelief in everything that the media talks about. In our article we will try to talk about the concepts of “cynic” and “skeptic”, about their relationship and mutual influence.
Definition of the concept. First representatives
Skepticism is a philosophical trend that proclaims that doubt should be the basis of thinking. If the reader is afraid that we will now venture into the philosophical jungle and get lost in them, then let him remain calm, because this will not happen.
To understand what skepticism is, one small example is enough, namely the image of Thomas the Unbeliever. An apostle who does not recognize the resurrection of Christ until he is provided with irrefutable evidence is a real skeptic. True, in this case we are dealing with moderate skepticism, but there is also radial skepticism, which does not even believe the facts, guided by the saying of A.P. Chekhov: “This cannot be, because it can never be.” Thus, skeptics (in short) are non-believers.
Of course, we could talk about the origins of philosophical skepticism. Turn to Pyrrhon, Montaigne, Voltaire, Hume. But we will not do this for fear of boring the reader.
It is better to immediately draw a definite conclusion at this point. The question of who a skeptic is can be answered in two ways: on the one hand, this is a person who believes facts and only them, but, on the other hand, if such a subject has doubt raised to an absolute, then he believes only those events and external phenomena. worlds that personally seem monolithic and irrefutable to him.
Experiments in extrasensory perception and skepticism
Everyone is somehow familiar with such phenomena as telepathy (mind reading), telekinesis (moving objects using the power of thought), psychometry (the ability to read information about a person by touching things that belong to him). Few people know that some of these phenomena have been tested in laboratory conditions, and some bearers of superpowers have been tested. So, a person who believes in facts will admit the possibility of the existence of parapsychological forces, but a dogmatic skeptic will still look for a catch. It seems that you no longer want to ask, who is a skeptic? So let's move on to the cynics.
Cynicism is a network of skepticism thrown over the sphere of morality and culture
Skepticism is a philosophical attitude that helps a scientist and philosopher cut off everything unnecessary and misleading. When an intellectual engaged in the scientific front closes his office, leaving a robe or any other work clothes in it, he does not change the grid of perception.
A dogmatic skeptic (ideally every researcher should be like this) turns into a hardened cynic in the real world. This always happens when a person is not equipped with an a priori belief in something. His consciousness (and, perhaps, the entire psyche) is controlled only by those facts that can be proven.
Sigmund Freud
Who is he - a skeptic, a cynic, or maybe both? It's hard to decide, isn't it?
One thing is clear: Freud destroyed many myths in the field of morality. First of all, there is the misconception that children are innocent. He also questioned morality as an autonomous spiritual entity, reducing it to human complexes. Of course, religion also got it, and not only from Freud, but also from his students.
Carl Jung wrote that certain beliefs arose when ancient man did not know the surrounding reality well; he needed at least some kind of hypothesis to explain what was happening. By the way, in this thought of the creator of analytical psychology there is nothing discrediting the honor of a religious worldview.
Fritz Perls touches not only ancient, but also modern people with his statements, and says: “God is a projection of human impotence.” This definition needs clarification.
Few people would argue with the fact that a person is a grain of sand in the world. For myself, the subject is, of course, space. He thinks something, wants something, etc. Ordinary human affairs, but then, for example, a brick falls on one of us on the head, and that’s it - our thoughts, suffering, experiences are over. And the most offensive thing about this is that a person, as Bulgakov said, is “suddenly mortal.” Moreover, he can die from a mere trifle, absolutely anyone. It is not surprising that such a small particle of the world needs a powerful protector, which is why man invents God as some kind of strong and big father who will not let his child be offended.
The dangers of skepticism and cynicism
So, the time has come to sum up some results, and also to say why it is dangerous to be a skeptic and a cynic.
From all of the above, it is clear that skepticism and cynicism do not do anything special; they simply call for approaching everything from the standpoint of reason, not faith. Therefore, if someone asks us, a skeptic is a person of what beliefs, we will say that he is someone who does not take anyone’s word for it and tests everything for strength with the strength of his intellect.
But there is also insidiousness in such a worldview. It consists in the fact that you cannot erect a building on empty ground. In other words, no matter how extreme a cynic and skeptic a person may be, he still has some kind of secret faith that feeds his courageous mind. When it is not there, it will soon appear, and then the current skeptic will become a believer. Someone will say, what if the conviction in the existence of something higher does not come to a person? Then the adherent of cynicism will fall into the clutches of nihilism. There is little good in the latter either; let us at least remember the fate of Bazarov, and everything will immediately become clear to us.
We hope that a comprehensive answer has been received to the question of who a skeptic is. And in this sense, the reader is left with no difficulties.
Skepticism in philosophy: concept, principles, history, representatives
Skepticism is a philosophy that, in its principles, is the opposite of dogmatism. Obviously, this direction of philosophical science was created due to the fact that some ancient scientists had accumulated many complaints against the currents that already existed at that time. One of the first representatives of skepticism, Empiricist, explained in his philosophical work that in this direction, essentially, the main tools of thinking are the comparison of the data of the mind and the data of the senses, as well as the opposition of these data to each other. Skeptics questioned the very quality of thinking, especially doubt about the existence and reliability of dogmas - truths that should be accepted as truths. However, skepticism as a direction of philosophical science does not at all consider doubt as a fundamental principle - it uses it only as a polemical weapon against supporters of dogmas. The philosophy of skepticism professes such a principle as phenomenon. In addition, one should clearly distinguish between ordinary (everyday) skepticism, scientific and philosophical. In everyday terms, skepticism can be explained as a person’s psychological state, his situational uncertainty, doubt about something. A skeptic always refrains from expressing categorical judgments. Scientific skepticism is a clear and consistently built opposition to those scientists who did not rely on empirical evidence in their judgments. In particular, this applies to axioms - theorems that do not require proof.
Skepticism in philosophy: how the direction developed
The history of skepticism represents a decline, an exhaustion of a gradual nature. This trend originated in Ancient Greece, played a very minor role in the Middle Ages, and was revived again in the era of the Reformation (during the restoration of Greek philosophy), when skepticism degenerated into softer forms of new philosophy, such as subjectivism and positivism.
Skepticism in philosophy: representatives
The founder of the Greek school of skeptics is considered to be Pyrrho, who, according to some opinions, actually studied in India. In addition, ancient skepticism as a response to metaphysical dogmatism is represented by such philosophers as Arcesilaus (middle academy) and the so-called “late” skeptics Agrippa, Sextus Empiricus, Aenesidemus. In particular, Aenesidemus at one time indicated ten tropes (principles) of skepticism. The first six are the difference between people, individual states, living beings, sense organs, positions, places, distances, phenomena and their connections. The last four principles are the mixed existence of a perceived object with others, relativity in general, dependence on a certain number of perceptions, dependence on laws, morals, level of education, religious and philosophical views. The most important representatives of skepticism of the Middle Ages and Modern times are D. Hume and M. Montel.
Skepticism in philosophy: criticism
Skepticism was criticized, in particular, by Lewis Vaughn and Theodore Schick, who wrote that since skeptics are so unsure that knowledge requires certainty, how can they know that this is really so. It is logical that they cannot know this. This question gave serious reason to doubt the assertion of skepticism that knowledge necessarily requires certainty. According to the laws of logic, one can not only doubt skepticism, but also challenge it as a whole. But since our reality does not consist only of logical laws (there is a place in our life for insoluble and inexplicable paradoxes), they preferred to listen to such criticism with caution, because “there are no absolute skeptics, so it is not at all necessary that a skeptic will doubt obvious things.”
σκεπτικός - considering, exploring) - a philosophical direction that puts forward doubt as a principle of thinking, especially doubt about the reliability of truth. Moderate skepticism limited to knowledge of facts, showing restraint in relation to all hypotheses and theories. In the ordinary sense, skepticism is a psychological state of uncertainty, doubt about something, forcing one to refrain from making categorical judgments.Sextus Empiricus in his work “Three Books of Pyrrhonian Propositions” noted that skepticism does not consider doubt as a principle, but uses doubt as a polemical weapon against dogmatists, the principle of skepticism is a phenomenon. One should distinguish between ordinary skepticism, scientific and philosophical skepticism. In the ordinary sense, skepticism is abstention from judgment due to doubt. Scientific skepticism is consistent opposition to teachings that have no empirical evidence. Philosophical skepticism is a direction in philosophy that expresses doubt about the possibility of reliable knowledge. Philosophical skepticism views philosophy, including skeptical philosophy, as a kind of scientific poetry, but not science. A distinctive feature of philosophical skepticism is the statement “Philosophy is not science!”
Ancient skepticism
Ancient skepticism as a reaction to metaphysical dogmatism is represented primarily by Pyrrho ( influenced by early Buddhism [not in the source]), then the secondary academy (Arkesilaus) and the so-called. late skepticism(Aenesidemus, Agrippa, Sextus Empiricus). Aenesidemus points out ten principles (tropes) of skepticism: the first six are the distinction of living beings; of people; sense organs; states of the individual; positions, distances, places; phenomena according to their connections; the last four principles are the mixed existence of the perceived object with other objects; relativity in general; dependence on the number of perceptions; dependence on the level of education, morals, laws, philosophical and religious views.
Criticism of skepticism
The skeptic says that knowledge requires certainty. But how can he know about this? Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn write about this: “Unless skeptics are sure that knowledge requires certainty, they cannot know that it does.” This gives good reason to doubt the assertion that knowledge requires certainty. According to the laws of logic, based on this statement, one can doubt skepticism and challenge skepticism in general. However, reality does not consist solely of the laws of logic (in which there are insoluble paradoxes that nullify all of the above), so such criticism must be treated with caution. (Example: there are no absolute skeptics, so it is not at all necessary that a skeptic will doubt obvious things)
Skepticism in medieval and modern philosophy
The most important representatives:
Notes
Literature
- V. P. Lega. Sextus Empiricist: Skepticism as a way of life // Mathesis. From the history of ancient science and philosophy. M., 1991, p. 210-219
- Yuri Semyonov “Ideological fashion in science and skepticism”
Links
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Synonyms:See what “Skepticism” is in other dictionaries:
- (from the Greek skeptikos considering, exploring) philosopher. a direction that questions the possibility of knowing reality or some fragment of it. S. may touch upon the boundaries of knowledge and assert that no knowledge at all or any absolute... Philosophical Encyclopedia
- (Greek, this, see previous page). The state of people who doubt. The teaching of those who are of the opinion that man cannot comprehend the truth. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. SKEPTICISM [Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
skepticism- a, m. SCEPTICISM a, m. scepticisme, German. Skeptizismus gr. skeptikos examining, examining. 1. Philosophical direction, expressing doubt about the possibility of reliability of objective truth, the surrounding world. ALS 1. Calls skepticism... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language
- (from the Greek skeptikos examining, investigating), a philosophical position characterized by doubt about the existence of any reliable criterion of truth. An extreme form of skepticism is agnosticism. Direction of ancient Greek philosophy: early... ... Modern encyclopedia
- (from the Greek skeptikos examining, investigating), a philosophical position characterized by doubt about the existence of any reliable criterion of truth. An extreme form of skepticism is agnosticism. Direction of ancient Greek philosophy: early... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
SKEPTICISM, skepticism, many. no, husband (from Greek skepsis examination) (book). 1. An idealistic philosophical direction that denies the possibility of human knowledge of the existing world, objective truth (philosophy). Ancient skepticism. 2.… … Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
SKEPTICISM- SKEPTICISM (from the Greek σκέπτομαι, “considering”, “exploring”, σκέψις, research), one of the influential trends in ancient philosophy in the period from the 3rd century. BC e. by 3rd century n. e. Traditionally, the history of skepticism is presented as divided into two... Ancient philosophy
Skepticism- (from the Greek skeptikos - examining, investigating), a philosophical position characterized by doubt about the existence of any reliable criterion of truth. The extreme form of skepticism is agnosticism. The direction of ancient Greek philosophy: ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
Distrust, Pyrrhonism, skepticism, mistrust, lack of faith, nihilism, suspicion, skepticism Dictionary of Russian synonyms. skepticism skepticism, lack of faith see also distrust Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical information... Synonym dictionary
S. is one of the main philosophical movements that is opposite to dogmatic philosophy and denies the possibility of building a philosophical system. Sextus Empiricus says: the skeptical trend essentially consists of comparing data... ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron
Skepticism- Skepticism ♦ Scepticisme In the technical sense of the word, it is the opposite of dogmatism. To be a skeptic is to believe that every thought is doubtful and we cannot have absolute certainty about anything. It is easy to see that for the sake of self-preservation... Sponville's Philosophical Dictionary
Books
- Ancient skepticism and philosophy of science. Dialogue through two millennia, Gusev D.A. Hellenistic skepticism, represented not only by Pyrrhonism, characterized primarily by “internal emigration”, a peculiar “existential” turn of philosophical thought,…
(from the Greek skeptike - closely examine or skepsis - doubt) - in the general sense: epistemological. installation, acc. cut generally accepted ideas about h.-l. yavl. dubious or unfounded, as well as an assertion of the fundamental limitations of reliable knowledge of reality by man (due to the lack of reliable means and methods of cognition, or due to the impossibility of confirming the truth of its results). In the narrow sense: philosophy. a teaching that builds its epistemology on the basis of this attitude; S. in his philosophy. expression can otherwise be defined as “epistemological. pessimism". Philosophy S. may have its own quantities. definitions (from denial of the reliability of knowledge of a particular sphere of reality or within a particular branch of knowledge - to radical doubt about its truth in general) and qualities. definitions (from the statement of the relative “weakness” of certain means and methods of cognition and confirmation of its reliability - to the statement of the heuristic failure of any tools of cognition). Agnosticism can be considered an extreme form of S., but with an important caveat: agnosticism asserts the unattainability of knowledge of reality in its essence, while S., as a rule, only questions it. In the history of philosophy and science, psychology is generated and updated by situations of transition from one paradigm to another, the breaking of old entrenched stereotypes and the formation of new models of cognition. Historically, the first form of S. in world philosophy was. the teachings of early Buddhism (VI-IV centuries BC), in which not only Vedic mythology and the teachings of the Brahmins based on it were questioned and criticized, but also the thesis about the total illusoryness of the phenomenal world was put forward. Similar motives are inherent in the Taoist teachings set out in the book. "Tao Te Ching", the authorship is attributed to Lao Tzu (c. 579-c. 479 BC). S. in the west Philosopher tradition goes back to the ideas of the Athenian sophists (Gorgias, Protagoras, etc.), Socrates (second half of the 5th century BC) and Pyrrho (c. 360-280 BC), whose followers were called skeptics in own sense. A set of ideas from antiquity. S. yavl. prod. Sextus Empiricus (c. 200-50), who introduced the principle of relativity of S. himself: if the criterion of truth is not strictly substantiated, then any statements based on it are unreliable; but posk. If the criterion of truth is unfounded, then the criterion of unreliability is also unfounded. S. in the Middle Ages. tradition is presented in two versions: 1) Doubt about the merits of any type of knowledge, except that which follows from irrational faith in the provisions of Holy Scripture (according to the apostle. Paul, “the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God”); 2) “Rational S.” a number of scholastics, going back to the provisions of Averroes (see Ibn Rushd) and P. Abelard on the need to verify the content of faith by the arguments of reason. If the first option formed the basis of a rigid dogmatic system of church doctrine, then the second, developed in the works of representatives of scholasticism of the 13th-14th centuries. (I. Duns Scott, R. Bacon, W. Ockham), subsequently played a significant role in the development of classical literature. natural sciences. S. acquired particular significance during the Renaissance, becoming one of the main. tools for criticizing scholasticism by humanists (G. Pico della Mirandola, L. Valla, L. B. Alberti, Erasmus of Rotterdam) and natural philosophers (Agrippa of Nettesheim, S. Castellion, G. Galileo). S. of this time is aimed at destroying the concept of “two truths” (see Dual truth), affirming the rationality and pragmatism of ch. provisions of Christianity. Its characteristic feature is the desire to rely on concrete experimental data, an example of which is Yavl. debunking of a number of church legends by L. Valla, made on the basis of linguistics. analysis of documents, or Galileo’s refutation of the thesis about the uniqueness of the Earth, derived from asters. observations. The pinnacle of Renaissance S. can be considered the work of Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469-1536) and M. Montaigne (1533-92), in which the original thesis of the philosopher was uniquely refracted. S., expressed by Protagoras: “Man is the measure of all things.” In Montaigne’s “Essays,” S.’s attitudes acquire a concrete life meaning, which can be reduced to the maxim: “Since general truths are unknowable, live as if you knew them. If you have achieved personal happiness and have not interfered with the happiness of others, consider that you are right.” His followers (P. Charron, P. Gassendi) modify the ideas of “Ch. skeptic of the 14th century,” introducing provisions on the innate roots of rational knowledge (“seeds of knowledge,” “anticipation”), which influenced the formation of classical. scientific-philosophical rationalism. Development of Western-European philosophy of the 17th century associated with the polemics of the “two systems”: the sensualistic system, which denied the possibility of knowledge outside of concrete sensory experience (F. Bacon, T. Hobbes, J. Locke), and the rationalistic system, which disavowed the data of experience in favor of the “innate ideas” of the mind (R .Descartes, B.Spinoza, G.V.Leibniz). However, both versions of S. yavl. limited, because direct their doubt only to the department. aspects of cognitive activity, while maintaining, in general, fundamental optimism in solving problems of epistemology. The real skeptic of this time was Yavl. P. Bayle (1647-1706), who in his “Historical and Critical Dictionary” (1695-97) spoke out against dogmatism in any sphere of knowledge and activity. "The Last Skeptics" in their own right. sense of the word can be considered J. Berkeley and D. Hume, whose philosophy. systems are based on a fundamental doubt about the reality of the objective substrate of all knowledge. Representatives of the French Enlightenment of the 18th century. (Voltaire, Diderot, La Mettrie, etc.), who often called themselves “skeptics” as opposed to “theologians” and “metaphysicians,” in reality take a skeptical position only in relation to the dominant religions, moral and social. establishments; Along with this, they are characterized by confidence in the absolute effectiveness of epistemological. a strategy that involves a synthesis of Cartesian-Newtonian physics with the sensualistic doctrine of Locke. Like them, J.-J. Rousseau, in his skeptical criticism of civilization and culture, defends the cognitive value of “natural.” mind" and social practice. the value of the virtues based on it. The “second birth” of S. is associated with the formation of non-classical. directions of philosophy of the 19th-20th centuries, each of which used the weapon of S. to criticize the foundations and manifestations of the “classical”. European reason”, embodied in the teachings of Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling. However, the development of these critical concepts from positivism and Marxism to postpositivism and poststructuralism only confirms the thesis about the relativity of S. itself and forces us to recognize the inclusion of its elements in the process of positive cognition and mastery of reality. Lit.: Bayle P. Historical and Critical Dictionary. M., 1956; Boguslavsky V.M. Skepticism in the history of philosophy. M., 1990; Diderot D. Walks of a skeptic // Diderot D. Works: In 2 vols. M., 1986. T. 1; Montaigne M. Experiments: In 3 vols. M., 1997; Sextus Empiricus. Op. M., 1978; Erasmus of Rotterdam. Praise for Stupidity. M., 1990. E.V.Gutov
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