索萨驳倒怀疑论了吗?——对索萨安全性路径的批判性考察

Did Sosa Defeat the Skepticism?——A Critical Examinationon Sosa’s Safety Approach

如何反驳怀疑论是当代知识论的一个重要议题。作为反怀疑论的重要代表,索萨在早期采取了一种基于知识的安全性条件的路径。根据知识的安全性条件,知识要求的是安全性而非敏感性,一个不容易出错或为假的信念是一个安全的信念。“我没有被极端欺骗”是一个安全的信念,因而,索萨捍卫了摩尔的常识立场,进而驳斥了极端怀疑论。但在遭遇梦境怀疑论时,索萨预设了一种梦境想象模型,该模型主张“梦中无信念”与“做梦是想象”,用以修补安全性路径。不过,梦境怀疑论的深层威胁在于,我们不能够反思地知道我们不在做梦。然而,索萨提供的“我思故我醒”的论证被认为是一种循环论证。因此,索萨并没有真正驳倒怀疑论。

How to defeat skepticism is an important issue in contemporary epistemology.As an important representative of anti-skepticism, Sosa adopts an approach bases on safety notion of knowledge in his early years.According to the safety condition of knowledge, knowledge requires safety rather than sensitivity, A belief that p is safe provided it would have been held only if(most likely) p.Accordingly, the belief “I am not radical deceived” is safe, so the Sosa refutes the radical skepticism.However, facing the dream skepticism, Sosa presupposes the imagination model of dreaming, which advocates that “there is no belief in dreams” and “to dream is to imagine”, to repair the safety approach.The deep threat of dream skepticism, however, is that we cannot reflexively know that we are not dreaming.The argument of Sosa’s “I think, therefore I wake” turns out to be a circular one.So actually Sosa doesn’t defeat the skepticism.