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    The cognitive impression can no longer serve as an automa... — Carmelics
    Home/Skepticism
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    The cognitive impression can no longer serve as an automatic, self-guaranteeing criterion of truth for the sage.

    Skepticism
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Descartes' demon hypothesis shows that even maximally vivid, compelling impressions can systematically misrepresent reality without the subject detecting this.
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    • 2.If systematic undetectable error is possible even for the most forceful impressions, vividness and forcefulness cannot themselves constitute epistemic self-certification.
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    • 3.The Stoic sage, being rational, must acknowledge that the phenomenological character of an impression is logically independent of its truth-tracking reliability.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Sextus Empiricus documented that the Academics, particularly Carneades, successfully produced cases where non-cognitive impressions are phenomenologically identical to cognitive ones.
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    • 2.If the sage cannot phenomenologically distinguish cognitive from non-cognitive impressions in principle, assent to any impression requires an independent criterion beyond the impression itself.
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    • 3.Without such an independent criterion, the cognitive impression collapses into a circular standard: it is reliable because it feels reliable, which is no criterion at all.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Cognitive impressions can be subjectively indistinguishable from false impressions.
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    • 2.If cognitive impressions are indistinguishable from false ones, the sage cannot be confident that what seems to be a cognitive impression actually is one.
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    Topics

    SkepticismTruth & Knowledge

    Connections

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    Perception2 linked

    Related

    Cognitive impressions can be subjectively indistinguishable from false impressio...Descartes' demon hypothesis shows that even maximally vivid, compelling impressi...If cognitive impressions are indistinguishable from false ones, the sage cannot ...If systematic undetectable error is possible even for the most forceful impressi...
    +4 moreShow less
    If the sage cannot phenomenologically distinguish cognitive from non-cognitive i...Sextus Empiricus documented that the Academics, particularly Carneades, successf...The Stoic sage, being rational, must acknowledge that the phenomenological chara...Without such an independent criterion, the cognitive impression collapses into a...

    Similar

    If cognitive impressions are indistinguishable from false ones, the sa...90%Assent to a cognitive impression should only be given if one has reaso...86%One should only assent to a cognitive impression when there are absolu...85%The Stoic definition of a cognitive impression does not require that c...84%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: stoicism
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    So where does this leave the matter? If this is the right way to understand the definition of the Stoic cognitive impression, then it would seem that they win their argument with the Skeptics. Examples of false impressions that are subjectively indiscernible from clear and distinct, true, ones do not show that there are no cognitive impressions. However, the admission that a cognitive impression might be subjectively indistinguishable from a false impression does alter the sense in which the cog
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit