The Place of Skepticism in the 21st Century Gnoseological Debate: Selecting Logical Positivism and Postmodernism

Abstract

This study is centered on The Place of Skepticism in the 21st Century Gnoseological Debate: Selecting Logical Positivism and Postmodernism. Within the context of Western philosophy, skepticism, which arguably began in the ancient times with the likes of Gorgias neither ends with the Contra Academicos of St. Augustine nor with Kant’s noumena as some scholars argued. Skepticism is an indispensable part of epistemic discourse that cuts across diverse ages of philosophical discipline ranging from the ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary; and also permeates all the branches of philosophy. The philosophical postulates of the logical positivists who unequivocally argued that any proposition that cannot be subjected to their verification principle is meaningless, was occasioned by skepticism. The postmodernist philosophers’ argument against objective knowledge, grand totalizing, and their downplaying of foundationalism, was orchestrated by skepticism. It is the position of this study that skepticism is not only a continuum, but most importantly, the episteme-vitae (the life-wire of epistemology). As a necessary evil in the philosophical discipline skepticism is an inevitable driving force in the 21st century gnoseological debate, and instrumentum laboris (instrument of labour) in the hands of philosophers. The research methods employed in this work include: analytic, contextual, historical, and textual.