He asks himself:
- How do I know what is real?
- Why do I believe what I believe?
- What am I justified to believe?
He asks himself these things about any situation, about any topic, about the very nature of reality itself.
In other words, WHAT AM I JUSTIFIED TO BELIEVE?
This question, WHAT AM I JUSTIFIED TO BELIEVE, is the core concern of a branch of philosophy called epistemology.
In 1641, Rene Descartes attempted to answer this question in his philosophical treatise called Meditations on First Philosophy.
Descartes strategy was to began by presuming that he was not justified to believe anything--purging himself of ALL his beliefs; after such purging, he would add back only beliefs he could justify.
Given that the senses are sometimes unreliable, the only thing that he could justify beyond any doubt is his own existence as a thinking being. He said: I THINK, THEREFORE I AM.
Chris Redford began with this statement and added that he would have to make some other presuppositions in order to have any claims of awareness of anything outside of one's own mind.
Following are Chris's assertions:
1: I exist.
2: I have to make a presupposition that at least some of my perceptions (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell) are accurate--that is, that they accurately reflect reality sometimes.
Following are Chris's assertions:
1: I exist.
2: I have to make a presupposition that at least some of my perceptions (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell) are accurate--that is, that they accurately reflect reality sometimes.
3:
a) I form beliefs about reality based on physical evidence.
b) The STRENGTH of my beliefs should be directly proportional to the amount of physical evidence I have for them.
c) If, based on evidence, I ever DOUBT, the validity of a conclusion I have drawn from previous evidence, I can RETURN to that evidence, RE-EXAMINE it, and SEE IF I COME TO THE SAME CONCLUSION.
NOTES:
3a) States that physical evidence is the only justification for any belief.
3b) States that the strength of my belief should equal the strength of the physical evidence.
3c) Physical evidence enables verification.
So, every justified belief that we have about reality is ultimately grounded in physical evidence.
And, conversely, beliefs that are not grounded in physical evidence and beliefs that are grounded in less physical evidence are unjustified and more weakly justified respectively.
