The Practical Value of Hume’s Mitigated Skepticism

Abstract

It is often assumed that the true consequences of philosophical skepticism are a state of uncertainty, permanent doubt, and inaction. If this were so, the political consequence of skepticism would be either complete indifference or political quietism. Indeed, philosophical skeptics often have considered common morality and the rules of practical politics as having no foundations, even when they could not do without them. Skepticism—or at least certain intuitions which follow from it—has also been advocated to justify either a conservative “politics of imperfection,” or an appeal to force as the ultimate criterion in politics and morality. Although these positions may need some further non-skeptical premises, insofar as they make use of skeptical arguments they arrive at more qualified versions of political quietism. From such a perspective it would appear that skepticism only supports one kind of politics.