What is the original impulse to a philosopher’s questions? It is ‘doubt’, contends Sundar Sarukkai
This is the fourth in a series by Sundar Sarukkai, to be included in his forthcoming book ‘Another Story of Philosophy’.
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
Why do philosophers raise these kinds of issues about perception, thinking, and the nature of our world? Are they not satisfied with seeing the world as it is without making it more complicated? What is the original impulse to their questions?
Generally, questions are catalysed by a state that we call doubt. Perception produces doubts. We have a doubt when we see something in the distance and we are not able to decide if it is a person or a tree. To use another famous example that is discussed quite extensively in Indian philosophy: you see a shape on the ground but you have doubt whether it is a rope or a snake. When we hear something, there is often a doubt whether we heard it “correctly”. Or sometimes we have powerful dreams and then have a doubt whether we had a dream or whether that event really happened.
Doubt is of special interest to philosophy. One can even say that for some philosophers it is the starting point of philosophical reflection. Therefore, it is not a surprise to find that philosophers across different traditions focus on the notion of doubt. The belief that doubt is an important step towards knowledge makes the...
