1Skepticism as a Theory of Knowledge

Skepticism about the external world may very well be correct, so the question is in order: what theory of knowledge flows from skepticism itself? The skeptic can give a relatively simple and intuitive account of knowledge by identifying it with indubitable certainty. Our everyday 'I know that p ' claims, which typically are part of practical projects, deploy the idea of knowledge to make assertions closely related to, but weaker than, knowledge claims. Roughly, we are asserting that we know p 'for all practical purposes. ' The truth of such claims is consistent with skepticism; various other vexing problems don't arise. In addition, even if no claim about the world outside my mind can be more probable than its negation, the project of pure scientific research remains well motivated. Epistemology is largely a response to skepticism. A subtext of virtually every theory of knowledge has been to show ho