Skepticism deals with the questioning of attitude or doubting of beliefs or knowledge. At one point in life, one may find himself/herself doubting the beliefs, attitude or knowledge that has been existing ever since. Generally, it is the questioning of possibility in the certainty of knowledge. The questioning depends on the denial of knowledge possibility or suspending knowledge due to inadequate evidence (Mills).  For instance, one may find himself/herself questioning why the sky is blue and not any other color. The knowledge about the sky being blue is questionable because it is just a mere belief and no proof has been presented to justify that the sky is blue.  Major domains of skepticism are supernatural, morality religion and knowledge. Some of the commonly discussed skeptical scenarios include Descartes’ Evil Demon Hypothesis, the brain-in-the-jar among others.

In the Descartes’ Evil Demon hypothesis, Descartes tries to determine whether his beliefs can qualify as knowledge. The evil demon in Descartes’ hypothesis intent on deceiving, he says the demon has power and is canning, and is using its energies to deceive him. This demon is present in the illusion of a world that is external. Some scholars consider this demon omniscient and, because of that, they believe it can alter anything including mathematics and the fundamentals of logic. For instance, if a person is bleeding, it can be an illusion or a dream. Hence, if the sensory experience is caused by a dream the bleeding is not considered real thus not knowledge. That is, it can make a person appear like he/she is bleeding even if in the real sense he/she is not bleeding. The demon causes bleeding without the knowledge of the person.

Through Descartes hypothesis, one should provide various reasons to assert grounds for doubts about everything more so the material things. The reasons will free us from the opinions we had perceived before, and we believe in, and this will easily lead the mind away from the sense. Consequently, it will be impossible for us to doubt our ideas further about what we may have discovered to be true. Therefore, the knowledge of believing things should not be taken to be true all the time. A person should always consider the first perceived opinion not to be true until he/she has eliminated all his doubts. The elimination should be by providing all the possible reasons to justify the truth about the idea until there are no more doubts hence concluding it to be true. It is imperative for everybody especially the students not to believe everything they are told and read the way they are. Instead, they should try to reason out why certain things are the way they are said to be to justify the truth about the whole idea.

This skeptic argument is a good one because through its discussions we get to understand many things that we just believed in without questioning. For example, many people go to the toilets to respond to the call of nature just because they were born and found people doing that without questioning. But, the reason why people go to the toilet is that the toilet is specially designed for disposing of the feces and the urine properly and no other place is designed for this.

Other examples include why people go to the hospital when they are sick and not any other place. People can also argue whether God indeed exists and make it not just a belief. It is also significant in questioning what we are feeling for example pain, whether it is a real feeling or just an imagination. Therefore, everyone who just go to the toilet because they saw people going, go to the hospital because they were told that’s where people go when they are sick, or they believe that God exists because they are Christians should review their beliefs and start looking for reasons. After getting all the possible reasons, they will know whether they are true or maybe all these are lies they have been fed all through

This argument is very successful because everybody lives with the opinions that they have gotten from other people or other sources such as books which are still opinions of people who wrote them. Everything about the world we live in is not true because they are ideas borrowed from other people. Many people don’t take their time to question the ideas that they got from others but instead, believe them the way they are to be true. If we want to know the truth about these opinions, then we must start reasoning by questioning the views that we had perceived to be true to get further truth.

Descartes skeptical scenario helps people to get the truth behind every presented situation and not just to believe in things the way they are because you found them that way. Every human being is a rational being with the ability to think. This ability should be utilized appropriately by questioning the reality behind every present situation to get the final truth without further doubts. Believing things to be true the way they are without questioning makes us appear stupid. For instance, if we saw other people taking stones as food, we would also take them without questioning whether the stones are digestible. If we question the truth behind people talking stones as food and we find out that stones are indigestible, we will know that the truth is, stones are not food.

In general, this skeptic argument is fundamental, and therefore everyone should consider changing their perception of things in the world. It’s high time we started questioning why things that are considered true are true, or they are just beliefs. If it’s just a mere belief then the situation can be changed to be truer than what people have believed. For example, everybody believes that stealing is wrong without looking into various reasons that can compel one to steal. If an orphaned and hungry minor steals food from a shop, by morals the action is wrong. However, by the same morals but with further reasoning the action is justifiable. Learners should change from believing that everything they read is true and start believing them to be true after asking themselves some serious questions to justify that position. That way they boost their understanding because the trueness of the ideas they have read will be right according to their knowledge. Many people are not productive in their field of work after school because they never took the time to understand what they were being taught by questioning why they are considered true for them.

Therefore, if we change from how we live and start questioning the preexisting opinions, we will get a better understanding of our world. Everybody will be in a position to explain any presented situation because they will have a real idea of the world. They will not be basing their arguments on what they hear or believe. It will be anchored on the truth that they discovered. The world will become an exciting place to live in as people will have more knowledge about it.

Reference

Mills, Ethan. Three Pillars of Skepticism in Classical India: Nagarjuna, Jayarasi, and Sri Harsa., 2018. Internet resource.