Skepticism, Belief, And Justification

Chapter Summary

From Richard Popkin's definitions, one could draw a picture of the conceptual connexions among concepts like truth, judgement, belief, reasoning, and justification in modern skepticism. Skeptical arguments are meant to dissolve beliefs in the philosophical sense, i.e., belief as taking something to be true. The skeptical method was directed against this sense of 'belief '. If one adopts a skeptical point of view, then skepticism is against Christianity. This 'Christianized skepticism' should not blind us to what skepticism itself, as a pagan philosophy, would do to Christian beliefs and faith. From a philosophical point of view, Bayle thinks that skepticism is opposed to Christianity, religion, and faith. To be sure, modern skeptics show that beliefs cannot be established as true by human reasons, and they can be true.

Keywords: Bayle; christianity; divine beliefs; modern skepticism; rational justification; Richard Popkin