Fact Skepticism

Fact Skepticism

Within the context of the case study provided, it might be said that skepticism is an honest search to knowledge. It is an approach to claims akin to the scientific method. It is a powerful and positive method of inquiry which is used to evaluate claims and make decisions. It is used to search for the truth in matters and to make decisions that are based on logic, evidence and sound reasoning. Skepticism is based on a simple method: doubt and inquiry (Steup and Ernest, 2004). The idea is to neither initially accept claims nor dismiss them; it's about questioning them and testing them for validity. Only after inquiry does a skeptic take a stance on an issue. These are the basic belief of people who are considered to be skeptics. One could mount a strong argument in the refutation of a skeptic's point of view.

Skepticism has within it many flaws which contribute to providing a successful argument against a large number of the chief principles within a skeptic's rationale. There are two types of skeptics, global skeptics and local skeptics. The difference between the two is really quite simple. The global skeptic with respect to knowledge claims that we know nothing and we can not even know that we don't know anything due to the fact that we may be justified in believing that. The global skeptic in respect to justified belief claims that we have no justified beliefs and we are not even justified in believing that we have no justified beliefs (Steup and Ernest, 2004). The global skeptic with respect to justification must deal with the charge of epistemic self-refutation. Local skeptics are skeptics with respect to knowledge or justified belief about some particular kind of truth. A local skeptic may claim that one cannot know any truths about the physical world. It might be said that one is victim to a Matrix world. A Matrix world being a reality which is controlled by some form of intelligence which institutes a false reality into the brains of people to give the person a visual belief based on the manipulation of the brain.

However, in determining that one is within a matrix world one is admitting that it is known that the world and anything within it knowingly exists and that those controlling the matrix exist as well as a brain existing (Steup and Ernest, ...