The philosophy of doubt: brief historical review

The philosophy of doubt is written in history through Plato, the Hellenes, Saint Augustine, etc. Do you want to discover it?

Not much has been written about the philosophy of doubt. The history of thought and doubt are contemporary. At the moment when man began to reason systematically about himself and his reality, the first fundamental doubts arose.

The great epic texts indicate that dilemmas, questions, risks and insecurities were faced, for many centuries, with a purely heroic approach. The best example is represented by the Iliad and the Odyssey.

The philosophy of doubt

In the ancient Hellenic world, rhetoric became the art of reasoning about existence. This without prejudice to also being an instrument of persuasion. In About non-being or about natureby Gorgias (Diels & Kranz, 1923), doubts are the central foundation of free thought.

In the words of Protagoras: “Man is the measure of all things, of those that are insofar as they are, of those that are not insofar as they are not.” Such a philosophical position focuses on the development of the individual’s capabilities to manage reality, others and oneself.

Socrates also referred to the philosophy of doubt. He did it through the great work of Plato. Thus he became the figure of the virtuous thinker. From that historical moment, the world of ideas and thought becomes the Olympus of man.

Acting effectively ceases to be the objective of thinking. Philosophical thought begins to nourish itself. The search for truth becomes the ultimate goal and most importantly of philosophical inquiry. It uses doubt as the main instrument of this search, but its objective is its cancellation to achieve supreme knowledge.

Plato and doubt

If we analyze Socratic doubt and maieutics, something emerges clearly. Proceeding through oriented questions it is possible to bring to light the inner truth of man. Thus, once the truth is reached, the doubt is nullified (giving way to more doubts).

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However, it is with the work of Plato where the world of ideas surpasses the practical dimension. The entire work of Plato, a disciple of Socrates, is aimed at demonstrating the supreme value of truth. The world of absolute ideas determines everything.

Doubt no longer finds space as a liberating stimulus from the cages of knowledge controlled by ideas that are indisputable because they are absolute.. In the RepublicPlato maintained the need for a reeducation of the intellect. It should be carried out in structures that in some ways prefigure modern concentration camps, built far from the city.

For Plato, knowledge emanated from God (a very particular deity), like light. Whoever was furthest from that source was more ignorant and primitive. Whoever approached the world of absolute ideas through knowledge and faith rose from bestiality to become a philosopher.

Doubt according to Saint Augustine

We can also observe the philosophy of doubt in Saint Augustine. Doubt is, for Saint Augustine, an obligatory step to reach the truth. Referring to Socrates, he affirmed that doubt itself was an expression of truth. We could not doubt if there were not a truth that escapes doubt.

Truth, therefore, cannot be known in itself. It can only be known in the form of refutation of the error. Find the evidence of it in the ability to doubt the false illusions that obscure the path to it.

Throughout the Middle Ages, scholastic teachers recovered the lesson of Saint Augustine and the ancient Hellenic rhetoric. They did so through seemingly insoluble doubts and dilemmas. They mediate the rigor of reasoning how God’s truth triumphed in any way over man’s doubts.

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Precisely in this period, universities were born, the cradle of academic knowledge. They were not born by chance. They were founded by the teachers of scholasticism. Among the most important representatives we find Saint Thomas Aquinas and Father Abelard.

Doubt in the 19th century

The philosophy of doubt cannot be separated from science. Beginning in the second half of the 19th century, another great movement emerged that promised victory over doubt and human dilemmas: science.

Positivist confidence in scientific knowledge soon becomes a kind of faith.. We speak of a kind of promise for liberation from any evil and improvement of the human condition.

It was only at the beginning of the 20th century that extreme confidence in science and its ability to lead us to objective knowledge also collapsed.. It collapses by virtue of methodological reflections and the most advanced scientific discoveries.