Authors : Sujay Rao Mandavilli

Volume/Issue : Volume 9 - 2024, Issue 5 - May

Google Scholar : https://tinyurl.com/2pu4nzsr

Scribd : https://tinyurl.com/4rcpbx82

DOI : https://doi.org/10.38124/ijisrt/IJISRT24MAY2271

Note : A published paper may take 4-5 working days from the publication date to appear in PlumX Metrics, Semantic Scholar, and ResearchGate.

Abstract : We begin this paper by attempting to define what skepticism is. We also attempt to define other related and allied concepts such as skeptopathy, pathological skepticism, and pseudo-skepticism, and compare and contrast all these different concepts. We also present the various thoughts and opinions of different thinkers on all these issues, and also attempt to explain how thoughts related to these issues evolved through the ages. We therefore begin right from the Ancient Greeks, on to Ancient Rome, the medieval period, the renaissance period, the enlightenment period, and then proceed to the modern period. We propose how an ideal sweet spot can be accomplished and attained based on the quantum and the quality of scientific output, the opportunity loss, the quantum of pseudo-science or bad science generated in the process of scientific study. Last but not the least, we make a valiant attempt to reconcile the different concepts in this paper with the concepts proposed in our earlier papers as applicable so that meaningful extensions and additions can be made, and further takeaways added. We also emphasize the need for generating a wider awareness on this issue, all in the interests of good science, and make it central to scientific methodology and debate. Needless, to say, it will need to be taught in schools, colleges and universities at the appropriate level so that students appreciate and understand all dimensions of the issue.

References :

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[2] Keeton, Morris T. (1962). "skepticism". In Runes, Dagobert D. (ed.). Dictionary of Philosophy. Totowa, N.J.: Littlefield, Adams, and Company. pp. 277–278

[3] Wilson, Richard (2009). Don't Get Fooled Again: A Sceptic's Handbook. Icon. ISBN 978-1848310520.

[4] Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics. Bloomsbury Academic

[5] Warren, James (2002). Epicurus and Democritean ethics: An archaeology of ataraxia. Cambridge University Press

[6] McEvilley, Thomas (2002). The Shape of Ancient Thought. Allworth Communications.

[7] Tad M. Schmaltz, Radical Cartesianism: The French Reception of Descartes, Cambridge University Press

[8] Hume, David (1993). "A Kind of History of My Life". In Norton, David Fate (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Hume