Skepticism Vs. Foundationalism

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Skepticism vs. Foundationalism Skepticism can be defined as the position that none of our beliefs (which the non-skeptic would refer to as knowledge) are, in fact, knowledge. More specifically, the skeptic believes we have no knowledge at all whatsoever, and that there is absolutely no way to prove that events, objects, or anything else, definitely do actually exist outside of our minds. Skepticism is a difficult position to refute, because of its rejection of our usually accepted methods of obtaining, and proving that we have obtained, knowledge. According to the skeptic, one cannot prove their knowledge using sense data (information from the outside world as interpreted by one’s senses), which, because it is based on observation, includes the use of the scientific method. A model of a situation in which the skeptic’s perspective would be true for certain people, would be the world depicted in “The Matrix”. In class, the movie “The Matrix” was used as a modern example of a situation in which people’s beliefs, which they had derived from their own experience of the world (which was modeled after our world) were not knowledge, but in fact a computer simulation. If any one of us were to be dropped into the Matrix (if we’re not in it already), we would have no idea that anything would have changed—that nothing was real, that now none of our beliefs were knowledge. There are three main skeptical arguments as outlined by Michael Heumer in Reason and Responsibility: the “Infinite Regress Argument”, the “Problem of the Criterion”, and “How do I get Outside my Head?” In this paper, I will focus on explaining the infinite regress argument, and the foundationalist’s response to the skeptical argument. The skeptic’s infinite regress argument is built on the premise that in order for one to claim that any of their beliefs are knowledge, they need
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