《知乎哲也》板块，由受到大家喜爱的哲学小哥TJ和主播璐璐一起探讨哲学那些事儿~ 公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】可以搜索英语全文稿哦~
Welcome back to 【Let's Philosophize】. 欢迎回来《知乎哲也》。
In the previous episode, we were talking to TJ about “doubting and knowing”, let’s continue with that topic.
Yeah. Depends on the context, depending on what you represent, depending on the historical limitations, geographical limitations, cultural limitations, political limitations, you see, kind of like a relative fact or relative truth. So this is the argument of whether there is ultimate truth in the world.
Yes, exactly. And how do we find that truth if things are quite relative？So… this already sounds quite difficult and it's… but there's three more to go. The next one is criticism of any theory like Descartes. He's very critical…
Foundationalism.
Yeah, it's a very big challenge because if you have a foundation, then you have to prove that foundation.
Exactly.
Actually this was what I wanted to ask you when you mentioned Descartes’ foundationalism.
刚才TJ讲笛卡尔的基础主义的时候, 我就特别想问, 就是说If you assume, for example, the foundation of all the other things, of your entire belief system, for example, is “he loves me, we have a good relationship” , if this is your foundation, then all of your subsequent thinking is built on thinking he definitely loves me, this is the truth. But what if that is not the truth. Then your entire belief system collapses, right？
Right.
So, isn't that the problem with foundationalism？How can you make sure that foundation is solid？
Exactly. Exactly. And this is the problem with all of philosophy really is that we just keep doubting. You try to find some foundation, but then you have to doubt the foundation. And you need more proof.
It's difficult being a philosopher, isn't it？
Yeah. Yeah. It's quite difficult.
So far, we’ve talked about the dissent among experts, 专家之间的异议; Number two, we talked about relativism, 相对主义, so people are restricted by different context, their background; Number three is foundationalism, 基础主义, so you have to doubt the foundation.
There’re two more.
I think the next one to talk about is infinite regress.
This is just what happens if we don't have a foundation. If we can't have a foundation, then you just keep asking why.
Infinite regress是无限后退.
Does that mean, for example, you say, fundamental belief he loves me. How can you be sure he loves you？Then you doubt that. And then you just keep going down that rabbit hole. Keep asking yeah, but how can you prove that？But how can you prove that？But how can you prove that？
Exactly.
That's the infinite regress.
Yeah, the best way of thinking about the infinite regress, I think is children, because children are often the infinite regress, you say Go to bed and they say Why.
They ask difficult questions.
Right. Go to bed. Why？Because you need to sleep. Why do I need to sleep? To be healthy. Why do I need to be healthy? Otherwise you get sick. Why will I get sick？Right...You can see that this will go on for a very long time until like Descartes, you eventually say because I told you so, right? Or for Descartes because God told you so, you need…
Exactly.
You need some authority.
This does sound like a rabbit hole that you just fall into. Yeah, so we have one more.
Right. And the last one is usually called coherentism.
融贯论. What is coherentism？