EXPLORING AC GRAYLING’S REALISTIC APPROACH TOWARDS COMBATING SKEPTICISM IN CONTEMPORARY EPISTEMOLOGY
Keywords:
skepticism, knowledge, non-dogmatic, belief, reality, experience, epistemology, GraylingAbstract
Grayling, one of the contemporary epistemologists is credited with developing realist approach to challenging skepticism and defending knowledge claims. The paper explores the theoretical basis of Gralying’s approach and assesses its strength and weakness. Drawing the philosophy of philosophers like David Hume, John Locke, Grayling argues that skepticism is fundamentally misguided in its attempt to challenge the reliability of knowledge and instead proposes a more realistic approach which advocates for a moderate realism in which knowledge is seen to be a result of reliable processes, beliefs and experience, that is always provisional and subject to changes as new fact and circumstances arise. This allows for the possibility of knowledge without sacrificing the reality of uncertainty as well as practical and non dogmatic approach that is more consistent with complexities of the real world. The paper therefore affirms that Grayling’s approaches is a proactive and insightful perspective in the sense that it allowing for a pragmatic and non-dogmatic approach that is more consistent with the complexities of our contemporary society
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