Abstract

GOMEZ-ALONSO, Modesto. DESCARTES AND CONTEMPORARY ANTI-SKEPTICAL STRATEGIES. Univ. philos. [online]. 2017, vol.34, n.68, pp.17-37. ISSN 0120-5323.  https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.uph34-68.deac.

It is usual to claim that Descartes’ epistemological project is such that its main objective (overturning the doubts of the sceptics) and the means to attain it (the method of doubt) are incompatible, so that Descartes necessarily blocks his own project. In this paper I argue that the above opinion comes from a blindness of sorts that prevents us from appreciating both the therapeutical nature of Descartes’ method and the specific procedures that he uses to work himself into a position from which radical sceptical hypotheses no longer make sense. Far from obsolete, Descartes’ strategy fares much better in terms of overcoming radical scepticism than contemporary rival approaches, whether they are overriding strategies or undercutting procedures that, stressing the groundless character of our basic beliefs, fall prey to the bewitchment of scepticism.

Keywords : norm of belief; radical scepticism; sceptical paradoxes; therapeutical scepticism; truthmakers.

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