What is Moore’s response to the Skeptic? (eBook)

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject Philosophy - Theoretical (Realisation, Science, Logic, Language), grade: 1,3, University of Luxembourg, language: English, abstract: The question whether an external world exists or not, is one that the Skeptic believes to be impossible to give an answer to, since the Skeptic cannot know if he is in a state of dreaming or a brain in a vat. The Skeptic cannot distinguish between those states and the states of consciousness; therefore, he does not attempt to explain the idea that there could be an external world.

The philosopher G.E. Moore attempts to explain why he believes that the external world exists. He does this by showing his hands and explaining that that is what gives him the reason to know that there is an external world. I will elaborate his explanation and show how he tries to defend himself.

To be able to decide whether we think that Moore’s response to the Skeptic is successful or not, I will be putting myself in the position of a Skeptic. This will make it easier to understand what is going on in the Skeptic’s mind and why the Skeptic thinks the way he does. So, I will show first what skepticism of the external world is about and why I, as a Skeptic, feel like there is not enough proof to be able to judge about the existence of the external world. I will show how Moore responds to my idea and show how it is not sufficient to persuade a Skeptic of the existence of the external world.

The goal of this paper is therefore to show if Moore would be successful if talking to a Skeptic and if we can say that his argument is bad, or maybe good, or simply not enough.