doubt
Doubt ( Middle High German Zwivel , Old High German zwîval from Germanic twîfla "double, split, double, double portion") is a state of indecision between several possible assumptions , as opposed or insufficient reasons at any safe judgment or result in a decision. It is also interpreted as uncertainty about trust , action , decision , belief, or assertion or assumption . The Duden defines doubt as "concerns, fluctuating uncertainty as to whether someone, someone's statement is to be believed, whether a procedure, an action is right and good, whether something can succeed, etc." Skepticism (Greek sképsis = consideration; concerns , zu: sképtesthai = look, peek; consider), on the other hand, denotes concerns through critical doubt.
Eisler's dictionary of philosophical terms defined in 1904:
“Doubt (dubium, dubitatio) is the (emotionally characterized) state of indecision, of wavering between several thought motives, none of which has the full preponderance, so that thought cannot be determined by objective reasons. While skepticism (sd) makes absolute doubt about man's capacity for knowledge a principle, methodological doubt (doute méthodique) consists in the provisional doubting of everything that has not yet been determined methodically and critically. "
etymology
The word Zweifel ( Old High German zwival , Gothic tweifls (???????)) comes from the compositional form twi ' two ' and the suffix -falt , which is etymologically equated with today's word fold . This led to the word meaning "ambiguous". Skepticism especially for concerns , suspicious caution 'is a takeover from Greek sképsis (σκέψις)' contemplation, consideration, investigation ', from Greek sképtesthai (σκέπτεσθαι)' look around, look around, peek, consider, consider, examine ', which for the first time sporadically appears in the second half of the 17th century and has been common since the 19th century. The adjective skeptical for 'doubtful, questionable, suspicious, coolly weighing' was borrowed in the 18th century from the Greek skeptikós (σκεπτικός) 'thinking, checking'; the noun skeptic for someone who doubts, always has suspicious reservations. Followers or representatives of skepticism have been viewed as representatives of agnostic philosophical directions since the 17th century . As early as the 16th century this was called in German texts in the Latinized form Scepticus , at the beginning of the 18th century the term was Germanized to Skeptiker .
rating
In the pre-Enlightenment order of values , doubt was regarded as both a sin ( desperatio ) and an evil that should be quickly removed and, as a permanent state, lead to despair . In the Enlightenment , doubt was given an upgrade and since then has been a prerequisite for all progress in knowledge . Epistemologists point out that the condition for the possibility of doubt is belief in (a) truth . Descartes in particular raised the doubt as a philosophical method , which he postulated in his work Discours de la méthode . He assumed that one can dispel any doubt through rationalistic considerations.
According to Charles S. Peirce - the founder of pragmatism - "the arousal of doubt is the only immediate motive for the struggle for conviction". What this means is that belief evokes an action that satisfies our desires. If another conviction arises that does not satisfy the wishes, then the doubt comes into action, which rejects the undesirable conviction, i.e. doubts. That is why Peirce also describes the fact that doubt expresses a "discomfort and dissatisfaction", from which one wants to free oneself in order to arrive at "peace and satisfaction" (conviction).
In contemporary scientific, philosophical and practical thinking, doubt plays an important role because it alone keeps thinking in motion. Without a doubt, no knowledge is possible.
See also
literature
- Richard Hönigswald : The skepticism in philosophy and science. 1914, new edition (edited and introduction by Christian Benne and Thomas Schirren), Edition Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-7675-3056-0
- Odo Marquard : Skepticism and approval. Philosophical Studies. Reclam, Stuttgart 1994.
- Andreas Urs Sommer : The Art of Doubt. Instructions for skeptical philosophizing. CH Beck, Munich 2007, 2nd edition, special edition 2008.
- Elisabeth Walther (Ed.): The consolidation of conviction and other writings. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-548-35230-8 .
- Bertolt Brecht: The doubter. (Poem).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pierer's Universal Lexikon, Volume 19. Altenburg 1865, p. 760 f. here online at zeno.org
- ↑ Zweifel in duden.de, accessed on November 6, 2012
- ^ Duden - German Universal Dictionary, 6th, revised edition. Mannheim, Leipzig, Vienna, Zurich: Dudenverlag 2007. here online at duden.de
- ^ Rudolf Eisler: Dictionary of Philosophical Terms, Volume 2. Berlin 1904, pp. 856–857. here online at zeno.org
- ^ Etymological dictionary of German according to Pfeifer, online at DWDS
- ^ Etymological dictionary of German according to Pfeifer, online at DWDS
- ↑ Cf. Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel: Lectures on the History of Philosophy II. In: Eva Moldenhauer & Karl Markus Michel (ed.): Hegel. Works in 20 volumes. Frankfurt am M. 1986, Vol. 19, 362. pp. 7 and 9.
- ^ Charles Sanders Peirce : The Consolidation of Persuasion and Other Writings