External World Skepticism and Transcending the Everyday World

Abstract

    The following statements represent an example of external world skepticism: (1) I know that I have hands only if I know that I am not a brain in a vat. (2) I do not know that I am not a brain in a vat. (3) Therefore, I do not know that I have hands. The first premise implies the closure principle. So, anti-skeptics argue that external world skepticism is false, as there are several counterexamples of the closure principle. This study aims to examine these counterexamples, contend their invalidity, and argue that external world skepticism is an attempt to transcend the everyday world, showing that its statements are not necessarily nonsense or false in terms of analogy and metaphor.