A consistent sceptic could not participate in debate at all
Evidence
The common-sense objection that one can make against scepticism is this: that to be consistent with himself the sceptic should do nothing else but live like a vegetable, without involving himself in the business of ordinary life. If the sceptic takes part in the debate, it means that he thinks that he can convince people. That is, he is no longer a sceptic, but represents a specific positive opinion, which is usually bad and can triumph only by convincing the community that other opinions are even worse, because useless. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1332
Categorization
- QUESTION: This refutation-by-inconsistency of scepticism resembles the performative-contradiction critique Habermas later formalizes; worth tracing that lineage for Module 2.