Skepticism is important in epistemology, the branch of philosophy that examines the nature and pillars of knowledge.
Skepticism is the attitude adopted by someone who doubts or disbelieves something . An etymological analysis of the term reveals that the term came to our language from modern Latin as scepticismus , in turn derived from medieval Latin scepticus .
The skeptic, therefore, does not believe in the certainty or validity of things . This often leads him to not accept reality as it is presented or to contradict the beliefs established in society.
Skepticism, in short, is a tendency or a position that leads to questioning various facts or situations, demanding proof or demonstrations as evidence. A skeptical person, for example, does not believe in ghosts, since there is no scientific data that can prove their existence.
The skeptical person
If we refer to the most distant etymology of the term skeptic, we discover that it comes from a Greek term that can be translated as " examine " and that, therefore, we can understand that a skeptical person is "someone who investigates" , who expresses disagreement. or doubt when faced with something that most people accept as true.
Put in a practical example, a skeptical individual would not say that "it is hot" , but simply that "he feels hot" , since he would not want to show off knowledge about an absolute truth; On the contrary, it would be limited to expressing an opinion . This falls within the concept of suspension of judgment .
Types of skepticism
The idea of scientific skepticism is linked to the questioning of pseudosciences and claims that are not supported by empirical evidence (that is, empiricism ). In this framework, the scientific method and logical reasoning are the pillars of this type of skepticism.
Religious skepticism , for its part, is associated with distrust in the effectiveness or veracity of certain religious practices, which can be linked to agnosticism .
Scientific skepticism resorts to the analytical method , the experimental method and other procedures to produce empirical knowledge .
The concept in philosophy
The current that is based on doubt is called philosophical skepticism , postulating that there are no objective truths since everything is subjective. For skeptical philosophers, knowledge always depends on the subjectivity of the subject, and not on the object being studied. Philosophical skepticism, in this way, maintains that the truth is inaccessible to human beings, which is why subjects must deal with beliefs and not defend non-existent certainties.
This current belongs to classical philosophy , a fundamental part of the history of this discipline, which is also known as Hellenistic, Greek or ancient philosophy and spread between its arrival in the West in Ionia at the beginning of 600 BC. C. and the Roman invasion of Macedonia that took place in 148 BC. C. , approximately.
Relativism (which rejects absolute truths), rationalism (focused on the use of reason to obtain knowledge), pragmatism (which focuses on the relationship between theory and practice) and evidentialism (based on evidence to the development of a belief) are some movements and currents that are linked to skepticism.
Friedrich Nietzsche, David Hume, John Dewey and William James are some of the philosophers who promoted skepticism.
Pyrrhonian skepticism
Skepticism in philosophy is related to the work of Pyrrho of Elis , a Greek philosopher who claimed to only give his opinion and never affirm anything. Pyrrhon is remembered as the first of the skeptical philosophers, and there is a school inspired by him, called Pyrrhonism or Pyrrhonian skepticism , which is considered a synonym for philosophical skepticism itself.
Another of the main references of skepticism is Sextus Empírico . This philosopher and doctor, influenced by Pyrrho himself, maintained that knowledge of things only occurs through how they affect the individual. Therefore, it is not possible to know what things are in themselves.
Sextus Empiricus was one of the promoters of moral skepticism , which maintains that no person possesses moral knowledge and that it cannot be known which moral statement is correct.
Academic skepticism , on the other hand, is known as the skeptical current that, within Platonism, posed some differences with Pyrrhonism. Academics rejected dogmas and appealed to doubt, accepting the relative value of the senses.
It is important to differentiate skepticism from denialism , a current that demands objective evidence for any statement that is presented but questions or rejects it instead of accepting it.
Data corroboration
Today, skepticism is much more common than a few decades ago, largely due to the access to information that the Internet offers us. While a lie could proliferate for days, months and years in the past, today it can be dismantled in a matter of minutes after an informal investigation in a search engine.
Precisely the ease with which we can verify data leads us to doubt everything until we confirm it, in part because this power that the Internet gives us is addictive, it has turned us into aspiring detectives and we cannot give in to the temptation to do use of it.
While verification is simpler thanks to technology, the spread of falsehoods is also simpler. That is why people must develop critical thinking and appeal to logic to develop their interpretation of information.