Anybody can be a skeptic. Just as anybody can be an Objectivist. Only to be an Objectivist requires a much greater degree of intellectual effort, observation, evaluation based on clearly identified principles, values, fundamentals. Denying principles, values, fundamentals is totally effortless. All you have to do is close your eyes. Only thats not the way to live ones life, with your eyes closed. So what do you think would happen if people accepted skepticism as a valid intellectual position offering merely a difference of opinion from other intellectual positions available out there in the intellectual market of the world? Simple. It would destroy the intellectual market. It would say that effort is as valuable as complete effortlessness. It would say that there is just as much intellectualism in the denial of the intellect as there is in the achievement of intellectual values - such as principles, theories, fundamentals, premises, values. Dont give this kind of shortcut to the destroyers of the intellect. Dont attempt to prove the skeptics claims. Call him out as the destroyer that he is and leave him alone. Do not grant him the title of intellectual, if you have ever respected or admired the power of rational thinking, in yourself or in others who achieve it.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 21:14:40 +0000