Acta Structuralica

international journal for structuralist research

Book | Chapter

205593

Scepticism and negative proof

Malcolm Clark

pp. 51-65

Abstract

The history of philosophy is well on its way before any professional philosophers appear. Perhaps Kant is the first of the notables to fit such a title. The reflective questioning we call philosophical belongs also to amateurs. It can appear whenever the robust confidence of our everyday questions is shaken. If the questions which come to mind get no answer, this is usually because we have not yet gone far enough in our search for it. But the suspicion can arise that the fault lies in the questions themselves. This may come from a confusion of language or purpose, which clarification can remedy. Or it may be that questions of a certain sort, however much we purify them, can have no answer. We learn that there is an art to questioning: our questions are not really what they appear to be.

Publication details

Published in:

Clark Malcolm (1972) Perplexity and knowledge: an inquiry into the structures of questioning. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 51-65

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-010-2789-2_4

Full citation:

Clark Malcolm (1972) Scepticism and negative proof, In: Perplexity and knowledge, Dordrecht, Springer, 51–65.