FREE ESSAY ON DOUBTING THOMAS

DOUBTING THOMAS

Doubting Thomas
According to Webster, Skepticism is the philosophical doctrine that the attainment of
absolute knowledge is impossible. It comes from the Greek word skeptesthai meaning to
examine, and the practice was brought about during the elementary stages of philosophy by
Pyrrho sometime between 360-270 b.c. Some other well-known skeptics are Xenophanes,
Gorgias, and Sextus Empiricus. Skepticism is very common in today's society, and is
practiced in some way by all. If you are alive and functioning on this planet, you'll
find that it is difficult to avoid being skeptic in one way or another.96
Pyrrho was an ancient Greek philosopher, who introduced pure skepticism into Greek
philosophy, founded the school known as Pyrrhonism, and is considered to be the founder
of philosophical skepticism. Not much is known about Pyrrho, because he left no writings
and was regarded by some to be a distant person who was not aware of things around him,
not even his teacher being stuck in a ditch as told in a story by Greek biographer
Diogenes Laeritus. But to some he was a sensible, level-headed individual. Pyrrho's
theory held that it is not only impossible to know whether our perceptions are truthful,
but equally impossible to find rational ground for preferring one course of action to any
another. Such skepticism was useful during Pyrrho's time; if nothing was provably wrong,
one could legitimately accept the customs or religion of whoever was in power. He also
believed that each theory had it's own contradictory argument, so he suspended judgment
on all events.161
The roots of skepticism are also believed to be accredited to Xenophanes, a philosopher
and poet of Asia Minor. He believed that if truth were stated. It could not be known In
his writings Xenophanes cleverly satirized the polytheistic beliefs of earlier Greek
poets and of his own contemporaries. He ridiculed their deities as gods created in the
image of the mortals who worshiped them. In a famous passage he asserted that if oxen
could paint and sculpt, they would depict gods who resembled oxen. He felt that humans
should reject polytheistic ascribing of human motivation and characteristics to inanimate
objects, animals, and phenomena and recognize instead a single non-human deity underlying
and unifying all worldly phenomena. 117
A parallel to Xenophanes' philosophy is that which was expressed by Gorgias, a famous
Sophist. The Sophists consisted of experienced debaters and speech writers who
popularized the ideas of various early philosophers; but based on their understanding of
this prior philosophic thought, most of them concluded that truth and morality were
essentially matters of opinion. Gorgias's philosophy was a nihilistic one, expressed in
three propositions: Nothing exists; if anything did exist, it could not be known; if
anything existed and could be known, it could not be communicated, hence the parallel.
Total skepticism was brought about by Sextus Empiricus. Although his writings were
extensive and stated nearly every every skeptical altercation, little is known about his
life. Sextus Empiricus was considered to be the last great Pyrrhonist and emphasized
observation and common sense as opposed to theory. He did not say that nothing could be
known but in turn suspended judgment on issues whether he had examined them or not, and
claimed that he did not know whether or not knowledge was possible.
With these arguments, it is an easy task to take on the view of a skeptic doubt anything
in this world in some degree or another. If we are not religious, then we may be skeptic
about the religious beliefs and teachings of others. If we are going into a major
surgery, we can become skeptic about the outcome. As humans, we are prone to have our
doubts about ourselves, other people, situations, and the world around us. We are brought
up to not be gullible and take things at face value, but are taught to think for
ourselves and research the things we do knot know. So, we are all skeptics in a way,
because we all have our doubts, big or small, they're there. 
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