The Concept of External World Skepticism

Is God real? That question is one a skeptic would ask. Skepticism is an idea that people ought to believe because nothing in the external world can be deemed real. We cannot prove anything we perceive to be real; it’d hinder human curiosity – the very thing that drives humanity. The belief of skepticism allows for there to be curiosity and the belief in a higher power or faith, which lies the basis of human nature.

External World Skepticism is the idea that the things outside people’s minds can't be proved real. Our outer extremities, objects and scenarios cannot be proved to be happening. There are three global skeptical scenarios, the dreaming argument, the evil genius argument and the brain in the vat argument. The easiest, and most popularly used way to understand this idea is by rethinking of it in the ‘dream’ perspective. When you are dreaming, while you are physically active in the dream, you don’t know that you are in a dream. You think that everything around you is real, so real in fact that you may physically sweat from the physical activity that you are doing in the dream; like running. You might be having a nightmare that is so crippling that you wet the bed because of the fear. In a dream, it feels so real, and it is real until you wake up and tell yourself that is wasn’t real. Because of the reality of the dream, philosophers have argued that nothing outside our minds can be proved real, because our real lives are just like the dreams, we have in that we can’t prove either real or unreal. There is no evidence that can be if anything on the planet is real or happening. The point is that we cannot be sure that the things we view with our senses; our bodies, the setting, the sun, moon and stars, are there for sure.

The idea of skepticism is indeed true because we, as humans, cannot prove anything we sense to be true. Not having proof is proof enough that skepticism is a valid ideology. As humans perceive, we do so based upon good faith. That means we believe things simply for the sake of believing in it. We believe 1+1=2, we believe that the $20 bill is divisible into smaller bills for change, we believe that the color blue is blue, but nobody can prove these beliefs so it doesn’t mean they're true but rather the norm that we choose to believe as truth. Like in the dream argument, because it feels real it becomes real – everything you do in the dream is felt as if it is reality and you can’t even tell if you’re asleep or awake, the same concept applies to real life. I may very well be in a dream state right now, thinking that I am writing a paper.

At the heart of all concept, like skepticism, the human brain is working its magic. The brain allows us to sense things and tap into our higher intelligence to be able to think about what we are sensing. It is our brains carrying out the concept we think we are perceiving. However, the human mind itself, constantly indulging in curiosity, is not all knowing. Humans cannot know anything for certain, its apart of our flaw and what makes us human. The fact that humans have curiosity and things to think about is what keeps us human. Being able to determine the technicalities of reality is omniscient and will never be able to be done by the human species.

Still, though, people have tried to argue that we can prove external objects real and therefore go against skepticism. Moore’s Proof of an External World is of the most controversial pieces of evidence against skepticism. Moore argues that hands are external, and if you have two hands then you have two external objects thus proving the external world. However, Moore’s idea can’t be proven correct because there is no proof that what we perceive of a hand is a hand. Skepticism comes in two parts: academic skepticism and Pyrrhonian skepticism. Pyrrhonian skepticism is the idea of constantly questioning whether something is real or fake without ever concluding. Because of this we can argue against Moore with the question – how can you be sure it’s a hand? Being in the middle of our ongoing reality is the reason we can’t decipher its realness and therefore can’t prove its realness.

Ultimately, skepticism is the best way to understand humanity because it’s almost like questioning whether there’s a God. We never know for sure, and we’ll never be able to, but the basis of human life revolves around religion. Nobody can explain the Big Boom Theory and what caused the explosion that ultimately caused humanity, but science revolves around it. The bottom line is that humans live off curiosity because our inquisitive nature is what makes us human, we aren't supposed to know everything. We can’t prove anything to be real in this life because there is no physical proof. We only believe in things because it’s the norm. Suppose people could determine an external reality to be real or fake, we’d have so much power because of the knowledge we’d obtain and the ability to control our surroundings. Suppose we actually could tell; did you really think we’d choose to live on a dying Earth and not in our space age dream?