Scepticism and the Context of Philosophy

1. The standards for correctly attributing knowledge (or justified belief) are in some way sensitive to context, hence variable rather than fixed. 2. While such context-sensitivity is readily seen in ordinary situations of epistemic appraisal, there is an important difference between all ordinary epistemic contexts and the context created by reflecting philosophically about knowledge or ‘‘doing epistemology’’. Whereas everyday epistemic appraisals are always in some way restricted, the philosophical examination of human knowledge is unrestricted. Since no knowledge-claim can survive unrestricted examination, in the extraordinary context of philosophical reflection—but only there— our knowledge of the world seems to evaporate entirely. (Perhaps it does evaporate entirely.) 3. Thus although the sceptic claims to have discovered, while reflecting philosophically, that we lack knowledge of the world, he has discovered (at most) that we lack knowledge of the world while reflecting philosophically.