What should be the scope of skepticism? Are there things which we should not doubt?

Question

Please give details. Examples or analogies would be appreciated.

Answer 1

You should not doubt certainties.Mortality,movement of the sun,the light in the fridge should go off when the door closes. Anything else is fair game. through your path to enlightenment you may make discoveries that will help all of mankind. Taxes aren't a certainty.

Answer 2

I am not sure of the answer to that question, however I will say this: Too often we as a society doubt without thought, especially in the media. I believe we should accept very little as fact without good evidence, but on the flip side if we are going to "doubt" or question what we hear we should also be willing to go the extra mile and try to find the truth. Too often I see media outlets questioning the law or how companies handle business, etc. but they do not offer altenatives, better practices, or how to implement change. I guess in a nutshell what I am trying to say is that is our civic duty to doubt or be skeptical but witht that we have a responsibility to be educated about which we doubt.

Make any sense???

Answer 3

skepticism isn't about doubt. It's about questioning things and never accepting the simple easy answer at face value. So a skeptic would always re-examine even long held beleifs just to make sure they are still valid. Skepticism is the fundamental attitude of science

Answer 4

Skepticism is like a casino. Just imagine you're playing blackjack and the two cards dealt to you are a four and a seven. Now you calculate your odds. Your thoughts waver from being skpetical about receiving a face card and optimistic about receiving a face card. Doubt is created about what to do. Nothing is for sure except for death and taxes. Even though we are told to trust are instincts, our instincts leads us to guess on what to do. If we doubt our instincts, however, we lose our assertiveness which creates more doubt. In other words, doubt everything and jump to conclusions on nothing.

Answer 5

I can think of only one thing we should not doubt - and that is we are each a part of an interdependent system, in which damage to any part may damage the whole. That goes for a family, a community, a State, the species, Earth and all that lives on it. For me, everything else is open to question, and in constant change What an adventure!

Answer 6

we should doubt everything as doubt is the very essence of humanity, without the first clever monkey saying why bother jumping when i can just stand up there would be no man.
without the first clever caveman saying why do i have to shiver at night and eat my food cold there would be no fire and without doubting anything we would not be at the top of the social food chain, as far as science goes we are the only race capable of logical thought and therefore we should use it to question everything both to encourage further evolution of the human mind and to escape the fate of destroying this beautiful planet we call home or becoming a race of drones for a worldwide oppression

Answer 7

The skepticism should stop short of solipsism[1].
Doubting the existence of the world itself although possible[2] is meaningless.
Consider if the world is in fact NOT real then your actions d not matter as they are not real.
But if the world IS real -- but you treat it like it is not -- your bad actions will cause you real suffering and possibly death.
Therefore there is no benefit in doubting the reality of the world -- thus acceptance of the outside world as real should come without doubt.

Answer 8

the scope of skepticism is very, very wide. in fact, it engulfs almost everything. meaning, you can doubt everything. but there is one thing that you cannot doubt, with all certainty. For sure, somebody must do the doubting, and that is you (or me, in my case). Try Rene Descartes "methodical doubt" and you'll become "more philosophical".

Answer 9

The nature of human beings is to doubt. Faith is accepting that we do doubt and accepting what we cannot empirically prove.

Answer 10

There are two things never to doubt. There will always be death and taxes!