WEBVTT 00:00:28.109 --> 00:00:31.109 I remember when I took my first philosophy course, 00:00:31.329 --> 00:00:35.299 it was on Descartes. Taught by my mentor at UCLA, 00:00:35.619 --> 00:00:38.700 Andrew Hsu. The course focused on Descartes' 00:00:38.759 --> 00:00:42.659 argument for radical skepticism. Questions like, 00:00:42.719 --> 00:00:44.659 how do we know that we can trust our senses, 00:00:44.759 --> 00:00:46.700 especially when we've been wrong in the past, 00:00:46.899 --> 00:00:50.719 when we know that illusions are possible, right? 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:54.219 How do we know that what we think we understand 00:00:54.219 --> 00:00:56.820 and claim to be true really is true, even when 00:00:56.820 --> 00:01:00.479 we were so certain that we were right, we sometimes 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:04.469 turned out to be wrong? This was the course that 00:01:04.469 --> 00:01:06.269 got me hooked on philosophy. I mean, there's 00:01:06.269 --> 00:01:08.489 a lot of other things that kind of drew me into 00:01:08.489 --> 00:01:11.069 philosophy, but this was the initial kind of 00:01:11.069 --> 00:01:14.530 the impetus for switching and dedicating myself 00:01:14.530 --> 00:01:17.069 to philosophy. Of course, this level of skepticism 00:01:17.069 --> 00:01:20.629 seems in many ways silly. I remember my roommate 00:01:20.629 --> 00:01:24.879 at the time. jokingly telling me that I'll be 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:27.739 sure that I can trust my senses when he punches 00:01:27.739 --> 00:01:29.799 me in the face, right? The point he was making 00:01:29.799 --> 00:01:32.200 was that these skeptical questions are ridiculous 00:01:32.200 --> 00:01:34.620 because at the end of the day, we'll continue 00:01:34.620 --> 00:01:37.299 moving through life, right? Trusting our senses, 00:01:37.379 --> 00:01:40.379 believing that the world around us is as our 00:01:40.379 --> 00:01:45.920 senses present them to us, right? We can't do 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:47.620 otherwise, right? So what's the point of asking, 00:01:47.799 --> 00:01:51.700 right? But I also think there's a good reason 00:01:51.700 --> 00:01:53.920 to slow down and take seriously the questions 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:57.439 raised by even the most radical forms of skepticism. 00:01:57.739 --> 00:02:00.640 And I believe it's even more important in this 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:03.019 day and age when we're bombarded by information 00:02:03.019 --> 00:02:07.180 and we need to be better critical thinkers about 00:02:07.180 --> 00:02:11.240 what it is that we're consuming and our justifications 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:14.740 for believing whatever it is that we're consuming. 00:02:15.180 --> 00:02:19.219 The truth is that we often don't question what 00:02:19.219 --> 00:02:22.560 we believe. This might seem insane for some people 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:24.979 who are like, no, I don't just believe whatever 00:02:24.979 --> 00:02:28.539 I hear. But let's be honest here. Take a step 00:02:28.539 --> 00:02:33.080 back. Many of our beliefs seem so obvious that 00:02:33.080 --> 00:02:35.419 you just don't see it as beliefs that you're 00:02:35.419 --> 00:02:37.580 holding. You never bother to ask what justification 00:02:37.580 --> 00:02:40.860 you have for them. Some things that kind of come 00:02:40.860 --> 00:02:43.240 to mind are things like the sun will rise tomorrow, 00:02:43.460 --> 00:02:45.580 or if you're in California, it's like, it'll 00:02:45.580 --> 00:02:48.340 be a sunny day, right? It's like most days, or 00:02:48.340 --> 00:02:51.300 that it won't rain, or it's highly likely for 00:02:51.300 --> 00:02:56.180 it to be true, right? That I see the thing that 00:02:56.180 --> 00:02:58.580 I think I see in front of me, right? And, you 00:02:58.580 --> 00:03:00.759 know, again, unless you know that you're under 00:03:00.759 --> 00:03:02.300 the influence of something, you might think like, 00:03:02.360 --> 00:03:06.259 oh, I just take it for granted. I believe that 00:03:06.259 --> 00:03:10.229 I see whatever it is I think I see. Or that 2 00:03:10.229 --> 00:03:13.009 plus 2 equals 4, right? Like basic arithmetic, 00:03:13.069 --> 00:03:15.770 because you've probably been doing it just on 00:03:15.770 --> 00:03:18.090 autopilot for so long, it's just something that 00:03:18.090 --> 00:03:20.030 you're not even aware that it's a belief that 00:03:20.030 --> 00:03:23.169 you hold. They're just that obvious. So you might 00:03:23.169 --> 00:03:26.110 be puzzled if I were to ask you, like, are you 00:03:26.110 --> 00:03:29.550 sure? Like, do you even have a reason for believing? 00:03:29.750 --> 00:03:31.889 Like, if I sort of ask, you might actually think 00:03:31.889 --> 00:03:34.449 that I'm insane for even asking these questions, 00:03:34.629 --> 00:03:39.039 right? One way you can take this experience is 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:41.860 to say that, look, some things are just settled. 00:03:41.979 --> 00:03:45.139 Some matters are just settled as true, and they 00:03:45.139 --> 00:03:48.620 are never to be disputed. That position is all 00:03:48.620 --> 00:03:51.439 well and good if there's a good reason for thinking 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:54.620 that the matter is actually settled and that 00:03:54.620 --> 00:03:56.699 we don't have to question it anymore. However, 00:03:57.080 --> 00:04:00.000 I think most of our beliefs are really not founded 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:03.120 on anything. It's just something that we just 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:09.520 believe. implicitly, right? Like object permanence. 00:04:09.539 --> 00:04:13.120 When the brain developed the capacity to make 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:15.159 sense of object permanence, it just started believing 00:04:15.159 --> 00:04:17.019 it, right? It's not as if somebody had to convince 00:04:17.019 --> 00:04:20.319 us to believe that object permanence is a real 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:22.860 thing, right? Descartes' whole enterprise is 00:04:22.860 --> 00:04:26.860 built on recognizing that many of what we do 00:04:26.860 --> 00:04:31.069 believe are in fact or in fact believe to be 00:04:31.069 --> 00:04:33.730 settled matter, is actually not something that 00:04:33.730 --> 00:04:38.829 we've ever had a justification for, or at least 00:04:38.829 --> 00:04:42.649 any good justification for. Our reasons for believing 00:04:42.649 --> 00:04:48.250 seem to usually be based off of, I don't know 00:04:48.250 --> 00:04:51.910 what to call it, like vibes off of repeated exposure 00:04:51.910 --> 00:04:54.949 off of something else, but not justification. 00:04:56.170 --> 00:04:58.730 And that includes the beliefs that we do. often 00:04:58.730 --> 00:05:01.050 take for granted, the things that we do assume 00:05:01.050 --> 00:05:04.529 are a settled matter. So there are two good reasons 00:05:04.529 --> 00:05:06.689 then for us to take the skeptical argument seriously. 00:05:06.870 --> 00:05:11.389 For one, we benefit from slowing down and taking 00:05:11.389 --> 00:05:13.769 stock of what we believe and why we believe it, 00:05:13.850 --> 00:05:18.149 and then asking whether we are justified in those 00:05:18.149 --> 00:05:20.569 beliefs, whether we have good reason for holding 00:05:20.569 --> 00:05:23.629 on to those beliefs, right? Part of this exercise 00:05:23.629 --> 00:05:28.439 does... shed light on the beliefs that we never 00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:32.000 bother to question, which honestly should lead 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:36.660 us to at least, one, develop the proper foundations, 00:05:37.019 --> 00:05:40.040 proper justifications for believing what we believe, 00:05:40.139 --> 00:05:45.319 but also to assign the more accurate weight we 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:47.079 should to the beliefs that we hold, right? So 00:05:47.079 --> 00:05:51.420 sometimes we tend to, you know, believe with 00:05:51.420 --> 00:05:53.519 a little bit more certainty than maybe we should. 00:05:54.040 --> 00:05:56.699 Right. Maybe some things are not as settled as 00:05:56.699 --> 00:05:59.600 we might think that maybe, you know, we should 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:02.779 believe it with 70 percent certainty rather than 00:06:02.779 --> 00:06:05.279 90 percent certainty. So we we could probably 00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:07.500 even if we end up holding the same beliefs, we 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:10.420 at least adjust the kind of weight, the kind 00:06:10.420 --> 00:06:14.319 of certainty, the kind of, you know, you know, 00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:17.579 the how much you want to bet on it, a type of 00:06:17.579 --> 00:06:19.500 weight that you would put on a specific belief. 00:06:20.269 --> 00:06:22.170 But it should also, at the end of the day, lead 00:06:22.170 --> 00:06:25.529 us probably to true beliefs because you are actually 00:06:25.529 --> 00:06:30.050 asking the questions that should lead you to 00:06:30.050 --> 00:06:33.189 more accurate, more likely true beliefs, right? 00:06:33.850 --> 00:06:35.889 But the other reason for taking skeptical arguments 00:06:35.889 --> 00:06:39.290 seriously is that, and I think this is probably 00:06:39.290 --> 00:06:41.250 the most more important thing, is that we develop 00:06:41.250 --> 00:06:45.310 some epistemic virtues going forward. And most 00:06:45.310 --> 00:06:46.709 importantly, I think it's going to be humility, 00:06:46.870 --> 00:06:50.050 right? Let me explain. I personally find it troubling 00:06:50.050 --> 00:06:53.769 that so many are focused primarily on being right, 00:06:53.889 --> 00:06:58.050 on the beliefs that they hold being true. I'm 00:06:58.050 --> 00:06:59.990 not saying that holding true beliefs is not important, 00:07:00.129 --> 00:07:03.649 but I think that we need to start placing higher 00:07:03.649 --> 00:07:08.569 priority on not necessarily on being right, on 00:07:08.569 --> 00:07:12.850 holding true beliefs, but rather the way we come 00:07:12.850 --> 00:07:18.750 to hold those beliefs, right? In other words, 00:07:18.810 --> 00:07:21.129 holding true beliefs, I think, needs to take 00:07:21.129 --> 00:07:24.810 a backseat to holding beliefs for the right reasons. 00:07:26.769 --> 00:07:29.129 Suppose, for instance, that I am correct that 00:07:29.129 --> 00:07:31.670 the Raiders win the football game next week. 00:07:32.350 --> 00:07:36.410 But suppose I believe that because, I don't know, 00:07:36.449 --> 00:07:39.290 I just had a feeling or a black cat crossed my 00:07:39.290 --> 00:07:43.430 path and black cats made me think of the Raiders 00:07:43.430 --> 00:07:46.430 uniform and that made me believe that the Raiders 00:07:46.430 --> 00:07:49.040 were going to win. Now, suppose that it's true, 00:07:49.139 --> 00:07:53.180 but it's probably not true. Let's just say it's 00:07:53.180 --> 00:07:58.160 true that I happen to believe this, right? So 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:01.040 I hold a true belief, right? But how much value 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:05.180 do you place on that belief, like the fact that 00:08:05.180 --> 00:08:09.000 I held a true belief? Probably not much. And 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:11.079 the reason for it is because I might have come 00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:13.959 to a true belief, but the reason I came to that 00:08:13.959 --> 00:08:18.689 belief was pretty stupid. It was dumb. It actually 00:08:18.689 --> 00:08:21.470 says a lot about me that I would believe such 00:08:21.470 --> 00:08:24.730 a thing for the reasons that I did. And I'm guessing 00:08:24.730 --> 00:08:27.149 you wouldn't trust any of my sports predictions 00:08:27.149 --> 00:08:30.930 if you knew this is how I came to my beliefs. 00:08:32.669 --> 00:08:35.269 Contrast that with the information that came 00:08:35.269 --> 00:08:37.429 out during the early days of the COVID pandemic. 00:08:37.870 --> 00:08:40.269 Some of the information presented to the public 00:08:40.269 --> 00:08:45.269 by Fauci and the CDC and so on. It turned out 00:08:45.269 --> 00:08:49.789 to be incorrect or maybe not as accurate as they 00:08:49.789 --> 00:08:52.509 had hoped, or maybe there's some nuance here 00:08:52.509 --> 00:08:56.370 where it was correct in some ways, but it wasn't 00:08:56.370 --> 00:08:59.190 as nuanced as it should have been. However, those 00:08:59.190 --> 00:09:01.789 beliefs were based on the limited information 00:09:01.789 --> 00:09:07.769 available and using good reasoning grounded in 00:09:07.769 --> 00:09:09.970 all the additional prior knowledge that we have 00:09:09.970 --> 00:09:13.789 of infectious diseases and so on. So there was 00:09:13.789 --> 00:09:15.669 good reason to hold the beliefs that they did 00:09:15.669 --> 00:09:18.070 in the time that they did, even if it turned 00:09:18.070 --> 00:09:20.950 out to be wrong. And lo and behold, as more information 00:09:20.950 --> 00:09:23.789 became available, as they did more research on, 00:09:23.870 --> 00:09:27.730 you know, the specific, you know, the virus and 00:09:27.730 --> 00:09:31.529 all this, right? Using the good methodology, 00:09:32.009 --> 00:09:35.049 solid critical thinking, they came to correct 00:09:35.049 --> 00:09:38.029 their beliefs. They came to adjust what they 00:09:38.029 --> 00:09:41.269 believed to be was true. The concerns raised 00:09:41.269 --> 00:09:49.110 by skepticism is to push us into considering 00:09:49.110 --> 00:09:51.850 our relationship with the world and with truths 00:09:51.850 --> 00:09:56.590 about the world in some ways, forcing us to acknowledge 00:09:57.289 --> 00:09:59.950 our limitations, to acknowledge that we have 00:09:59.950 --> 00:10:03.269 limited information. And the best that we can 00:10:03.269 --> 00:10:06.429 actually do, because we can't guarantee that 00:10:06.429 --> 00:10:09.169 we'll hold true beliefs, the best we can do is 00:10:09.169 --> 00:10:12.870 to at least, you know, form beliefs in the right 00:10:12.870 --> 00:10:15.490 kind of way. And this is what I mean by epistemic 00:10:15.490 --> 00:10:18.970 virtue, right? What I mean is that we need to 00:10:18.970 --> 00:10:26.350 develop the ability to engage with facts, with 00:10:26.350 --> 00:10:30.929 reality, with the way that we uncover truths 00:10:30.929 --> 00:10:33.909 about the world in the right sort of way to put 00:10:33.909 --> 00:10:39.169 us in the best position to come to not only more 00:10:39.169 --> 00:10:44.570 true beliefs more often than not, but also grounded 00:10:44.570 --> 00:10:50.769 in the right reasons, right? None of us have 00:10:50.769 --> 00:10:54.409 access to what is true. I think this is one of 00:10:54.409 --> 00:10:57.549 the big lessons, for me anyways, of, you know, 00:10:57.549 --> 00:11:00.649 exploring skepticism, is that the reality is 00:11:00.649 --> 00:11:04.350 that we know a lot less than we give ourselves 00:11:04.350 --> 00:11:08.830 credit for. There's no limits to human ego and 00:11:08.830 --> 00:11:11.529 thinking that they know, you know, so much more 00:11:11.529 --> 00:11:14.070 than they actually do, right? We are building 00:11:14.070 --> 00:11:18.830 our knowledge base based off of incomplete evidence. 00:11:21.129 --> 00:11:24.870 But we do so in the best ways that we can, utilizing 00:11:24.870 --> 00:11:28.590 the best tools that we have. We utilize our senses, 00:11:28.830 --> 00:11:31.850 and when our senses are insufficient, we use 00:11:31.850 --> 00:11:36.509 various tools that are much more accurate. We 00:11:36.509 --> 00:11:39.929 also employ logic and math to ensure that we 00:11:39.929 --> 00:11:42.450 have solid justification and reasoning process. 00:11:45.230 --> 00:11:48.710 Employ all these things to a limited degree in 00:11:48.710 --> 00:11:53.210 our own imperfect sort of ways to get as close 00:11:53.210 --> 00:11:57.129 to the truth as possible. But again, the reality 00:11:57.129 --> 00:12:00.809 is that none of us have direct access to the 00:12:00.809 --> 00:12:06.570 truth. We are constantly searching for the truth 00:12:06.570 --> 00:12:08.909 through some medium, whether it's our sensory 00:12:08.909 --> 00:12:10.950 experience or whether it's the limited tools 00:12:10.950 --> 00:12:13.659 that we have. you know, limited understanding, 00:12:13.940 --> 00:12:16.779 brain capacity, computers, whatever else, right? 00:12:17.700 --> 00:12:20.519 Acknowledging these limits are not a bad thing. 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:23.620 Acknowledging these limits should push us to 00:12:23.620 --> 00:12:28.500 be much more creative and to, you know, develop 00:12:28.500 --> 00:12:31.659 new ways of better understanding the world around 00:12:31.659 --> 00:12:36.500 us. More than anything, it should humble us to 00:12:36.500 --> 00:12:40.639 the vast universe around us and our limited place 00:12:40.639 --> 00:12:44.169 within it. We will be wrong most of the time. 00:12:45.149 --> 00:12:46.870 People don't want to hear it. It doesn't feel 00:12:46.870 --> 00:12:49.490 good, but that's the reality. We're going to 00:12:49.490 --> 00:12:52.429 be wrong most of the time. Instead of beating 00:12:52.429 --> 00:12:55.870 up ourselves over getting things wrong, instead 00:12:55.870 --> 00:12:58.529 of focusing so much on whether or not we got 00:12:58.529 --> 00:13:02.330 the answer correct, I think we would find it 00:13:02.330 --> 00:13:06.389 to be a much more helpful process if we just 00:13:06.389 --> 00:13:10.480 focus on how we came. to hold the false beliefs, 00:13:10.600 --> 00:13:13.059 and sometimes even the true ones, and addressing 00:13:13.059 --> 00:13:15.639 the process. Because at the end of the day, fixing 00:13:15.639 --> 00:13:19.399 the process is what will lead us to correct beliefs 00:13:19.399 --> 00:13:22.980 more often than not. Skepticism, in some sense, 00:13:23.059 --> 00:13:26.220 is doing just that. It's pushing us to focus 00:13:26.220 --> 00:13:29.379 on the process, to focus on the justifications 00:13:29.379 --> 00:13:32.700 that we have for believing what we do. to weed 00:13:32.700 --> 00:13:35.539 out the beliefs that we hold that we have insufficient 00:13:35.539 --> 00:13:39.700 justification for so that we're forced essentially 00:13:39.700 --> 00:13:44.500 into identifying sufficient justifications, better 00:13:44.500 --> 00:13:46.539 justifications for the beliefs that we hold. 00:13:48.139 --> 00:13:51.580 So as silly as it may sound to say out loud, 00:13:51.659 --> 00:13:54.600 let me ask you, why do you believe that the world 00:13:54.600 --> 00:13:57.759 around you is as your senses present them to 00:13:57.759 --> 00:14:03.139 you? Because I can tell you this. I've been wrong 00:14:03.139 --> 00:14:06.879 about a lot of things, and that includes what 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:11.720 it is that I believe I saw. If you know anything 00:14:11.720 --> 00:14:14.000 about what we've learned about eyewitness testimony, 00:14:14.120 --> 00:14:18.220 you know this, that people's eyewitness testimony 00:14:18.220 --> 00:14:25.700 is often not very accurate. And that's because 00:14:25.700 --> 00:14:29.399 we often don't just take in what the world gives 00:14:29.399 --> 00:14:34.779 us. We, in some ways, create our world around 00:14:34.779 --> 00:14:38.639 us through our senses, through our perception, 00:14:38.940 --> 00:14:42.960 through memory, through our own desires and wishes. 00:14:44.279 --> 00:14:48.159 We project things onto the world. So maybe it's 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:51.139 time for us to slow down and really reconsider 00:14:51.139 --> 00:14:54.720 exactly why it is we believe what we do. And 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:57.159 maybe in that process, find a little more humility. 00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:01.700 not as a way of, you know, denigrating ourselves, 00:15:01.799 --> 00:15:05.100 but rather as a way of, you know, acknowledging 00:15:05.100 --> 00:15:08.700 that, you know, this is going to be part of the 00:15:08.700 --> 00:15:12.740 process and that we all hopefully will all be 00:15:12.740 --> 00:15:13.399 the better for it.