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Originally Posted by utabintarbo  I'm sorry to hear that, but you probably don't believe that either.  |
I don't, but not because of skepticism. I disbelieve it because of your propensity towards sarcasm.
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I don't believe that you really don't believe that. But then you likely don't believe that I don't believe that you don't believe it.
Rampant skepticism gives me a headache. |
I believe that you don't believe that I really don't believe...OK, I'm out.
I believe lots of things. Mainly, I believe the obvious things in front of my face. If you say you are exactly 2 meters tall, I believe you. I'm even a bit naive about it.
What I *don't* believe in is absolute certainty. I'm open to the possibility that I might be wrong.
In particular, I don't think there's such a thing as a self-evident, or self-justifying, or Knowledge-Giver-Justified Axiom.
I take the ones that make the most sense to me...but how--honestly, HOW--how can ANYONE with any shred of intellectual honesty claim that their axioms are unequivocally, irrefutably, universally true, beyond any possibility of doubt?
I mean, I may *think* mine are true, but how the heck could I know for sure?
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To a skeptic who does not believe in certain knowledge, all knowledge must necessarily be arbitrary.
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Bnonn has scared me out of using the word 'knowledge,' but my beliefs are not arbitrary. My axioms are not arbitrary. As I've said, I try to stick to plausibility, simplicity, and beauty in my axioms.
I just think that axioms are *allowed* to be arbitrary, by definition. Doesn't mean the ones I choose to believe about the universe are *arrived at* arbitrarily.
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Thus is the self-refuting nature of skepticism.
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And you prefer the self-affirming nature of dogma?
