ETHICS AND THE SCEPTICAL CHALLENGE: A PRAGMATICIST APPROACH

Abstract: The aim of the paper is to present the specific reasons why a Peircian or pragmaticist approach is best “equipped ” not so much as compared with other pragmatist attempts, but as such, to answer some of the hardest challenges posed by contemporary scepticism, even when it comes to the ethical aspects posed by such a challenge. After sketching the major aspects of the sceptical challenge and the most common contemporary answers it gave rise to, an analysis is made of the reasons why the ethical aspect of the challenge is specifically acute, and why, then, in many ways, a pragmaticist approach is not fundamentally different from other pragmatist approaches (in particular Peirce’s and James’); although finally, some arguments are presented in favour of a more straightforwardly Peircian or pragmaticist attitude as being the most efficient parry to the sceptical challenge, along the following lines: 1) a better account of the distinction to be made between ethical and epistemic justification, 2) a more detailed analysis of the mechanisms of doubt, belief, self-control