Volume 4, Issue 2 , Winter and Spring 2014, , Pages 71-90
Abstract
Skepticism consists of the possibility of the falsity of most of statements we suppose to be true. This possibility is shown by arguments such as Descartes’ dreaming, evil demon and the brain in vat arguments. Having developed the idea of radical interpretation, Donald Davidson has argued in a ...
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Skepticism consists of the possibility of the falsity of most of statements we suppose to be true. This possibility is shown by arguments such as Descartes’ dreaming, evil demon and the brain in vat arguments. Having developed the idea of radical interpretation, Donald Davidson has argued in a number of his papers that the possibility of language and communication shows we cannot be mistaken about the world around us, and consequently sceptical doubts about our knowledge are misplaced. According to him, the very nature of language and the accompanying phenomenon, that is belief, imply the connection between speaker’s and interpreter’s beliefs and the external world. This connection implies the truth of much of our beliefs. In the first step, Davidson shows the agreement between the speaker and the interpreter. In the second step, by resorting to the arguments of omniscient interpreter and radical interpretation, he argues that this agreement corresponds to the external world. This paper concludes that the first argument is incomplete but defends the second one against objections and criticisms
