It has come to my attention that the only fool-proof methodology in philosophy is the skeptic’s or the nihilist’s. Just like in science, the only certainties are falsifications. Any claim X, no matter how convincing and rigorously defended, can always in principle be brought crashing down with enough clever and sophisticated thinking. Descarte and Hume are prime examples of this.
So if you want to always be right, be a skeptic or nihilist. If you want to believe in something more positive (i.e. uphold some truth rather than tear down any and all truths), be prepared for a long haul battle with clever and relentless skeptics and nihilists. Be prepared to play the “absurdity” card (i.e. skeptics and nihilists will often have to resort to the absurd however logically air-tight their arguments may be) or the “opinion” card (where you concede that you’re just expressing your opinion rather than presenting an irrefutable proof).
As for me, I like to believe in a thing or two. I’m not in this game to prove anything. I enjoy a good debate, or even a peaceful exchange of ideas, and I’ll pay along with any skeptics/nihilist who wishes to drag arguments out to their bitter end, but since the skeptic’s/nihilist’s game is an eternal onslaught against one proposition after another, I can’t play it forever, nor do I claim to be able to, and so I accept throwing in the towel when I feel I’ve had enough. For me, there is no shame in this since I know the choices I’ve made, and I prefer those choice over the skeptic’s/nihilist’s, and I’m not in this game to “be right”, but only to converse, and even debate mercilessly, for the shear pleasure of intellectual recreation.
Fun aside, the valuable thing to take from the skeptics and nihilists is that we have severe and abundant limitations, as well as a myriad number of influences, which not only shape what we believe, but how we go about constructing those beliefs. Juvenile Nietzsche enthusiasts aside, I think the best way to appreciate the skeptic/nihilist assault is not, “You shouldn’t believe!”, but rather, “Be very careful, and realize when you’re making baseline assumptions”. Indeed, intuitions play a huge role, especially when dealing with something like ethics for instance, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have an important discussion nor does it entail that we don’t have something valuable to say. It just means we need to be careful.
