Philosophy in Seven Sentences: A Small Introduction to a Vast Topic by Douglas Groothuis

Author:Douglas Groothuis [Groothuis, Douglas]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2016-02-05T16:00:00+00:00

Descartes needed to exorcize the skeptical demon that has haunted the history of philosophy. As far back as we can go, philosophers have wondered not just what can be known but whether anything can be known. Believing a statement is easy, but knowing it (having good reasons for believing it) is much harder—and some have thought it impossible. The ancient Greek philosopher Pyrrho, for example, claimed that knowledge is impossible. Therefore, one should simply hold beliefs in abeyance and cultivate a complacent unknowing that merely follows traditions since that is the easiest thing to do. We will come back to skepticism in chapter six on Pascal, but what we need to heed here is the threat of skepticism to philosophy and how Descartes rose to the occasion.

In the “First Meditation,” Descartes gives the skeptic a wide berth. He resolves to doubt everything that can be doubted, since any of his beliefs might be false. It is not that he actively doubts everything but that in search of a proper foundation for knowledge, he will methodologically engage in systematic doubt as the starting point for his quest.

Since reason has already persuaded me that I ought to withhold belief no less carefully from things not entirely certain and indubitable than from those which now appear manifestly false, I shall be justified in setting all of them aside, if in each case, I can find any ground whatsoever for regarding them as dubitable.5

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