Theory of Skepticism and the Reliability of the Normal Sources of Knowledge

Theory of Skepticism
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Theory of Skepticism
The theory of skepticism is anchored on the argument that contemporarily lacks knowledge. It is the attitude that people develop of doubting knowledge proposed in different knowledge areas. It challenges the reliability and adequacy of the claims questioning the basis of their arguments and what they establish. Therefore, the theory questions knowledge about different things and issues. It bases its argument on the nature of knowledge and its extent too. The skeptics believe that people can never be confident about the reliability of their usual sources of knowledge, namely perceptions, memory, introspection, and reasoning.
Perception helps people collect information about the world using the five senses of sight, touch, smell, taste, and sound. Perceiving the world requires that a person has the concepts representing their perception (Williams, 2017). For instance, a person visiting a place for the first time and it rains on the first and second day. They perceive the area based on the rain. Therefore, they should possess the concept of rain and would view the region as rainy. However, perception is not a vital source of knowledge because it may not be accurate. What people perceive does not always reflect the accuracy of the information because the concept they hold about their perceptions might be wrong. Nonetheless, more people's knowledge comes from the five senses.
Reason comes second after perception, as people have to reason to interpret their perceptions. All available knowledge requires reason. For instance, researchers go to the field to collect ...