How do you know you're not dreaming right now?!
It sounds sort of pretentious doesn't it? It is the kind of question that causes the vast majority of people to roll their eyes whilst certain groups latch onto the ideas contained therein in an attempt to loose their ties with the all to cliched notion of 'reality'. I wonder how this came to be the case. To me, questions of this sort seem entirely legitimate, and legitimate questions are usually met with attempts at an answer aren't they? Exceptions arise when the answer is obvious or ridiculous or deliberately provocative, but that cannot be said of this question. Centuries of discussion by philosophers of what is known as 'the skeptical problem' have produced no conclusive answer yet and study of the topic has lead me to believe that it never will.
It is not the inability of any individual to prove that he is truly engaging with reality that bothers me; it is the reluctance of most people to address this inability in an appropriate manner. The imperative to hold beliefs about the external world with absolutely no reasonable foundation for doing so is thrust upon all of us by Descartes' evil daemon working in partnership with human nature and yet it is as though we also enter into some sort of secret pact never to mention this. Somehow it is those who correctly recognize the lack of logical foundation for the majority of our beliefs and seek to discuss this openly that are deemed silly or childish.
For those unfamiliar with the skeptical argument and its conclusions I will present a shortened version below:
(1) If I am a brain in a vat then I do not know that x
(2)I cannot rule out the possibility that i am a brain in a vat
(C) I do not know that x
where x stands for any given fact about the external world and 'I am a brain in a vat' can be replaced by any sort of weird perception distorting scenario you fancy (e.g. dreaming or evil daemons).
To my mind this argument is pretty convincing, but you wouldn't think it the way people roll their eyes when I bring it up!
I suppose this is just a rant, but it is a rant about epistemology so I don't feel too guilty...
