You shouldn't trust anything you feel is true, because your perception may be wrong. There is nothing that cannot be questioned, everything can be doubted. That being the case, it is not to judge anything, and this is the main doctrine of skepticism.
Unlike philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, who sought to understand the world, the most extreme skeptics avoid having any opinion on anything. Pilang in the ancient Greek period (c. 365 BC – c. 270 BC) was the most famous, and perhaps the most extreme skeptic of all time.
You may believe that you know all sorts of things, for example, that you know that you are reading this text. But skeptics will ask: Why do you believe you're actually reading this text and not doing it imaginaryly? Are you sure you're right? It looks like you're reading, and it may be true to you, but it could also be your hallucination, or a dream?
Socrates insisted that the only thing he understood was that he did not understand everything, which was also a skeptical view. But Pi Lang continued to deduce this view, pushing it far, very far, perhaps a little too far.
Throughout his life, Pi Lang was known for being suspicious of everything. Like Socrates, he never wrote anything, so our knowledge of him can only be based on the accounts of others, mostly centuries after his death. Diogenes Larsio was one of them, and according to him, Pilang became a celebrity at the time, became a high priest in Iris, where he lived, and because of his reputation, the philosophers of the time did not have to pay taxes. Whether this statement is true or not cannot be verified, but I think it is a good idea for philosophers not to pay taxes.
However, as far as we know, Pilang practiced his skepticism in some rather unusual ways. Without the protection of his friends, his life could have been very short. Any extreme skeptic, unless he has the best luck, needs the help of a less determined skeptic or not to live long.
For life, PiLang believes that we can't fully trust our feelings, and sometimes feelings can mislead us. For example, vision is prone to error in the dark, and what looks like a fox might be a cat. Sometimes you feel like you're hearing someone calling your name, but it could actually be the sound of trees shaking in the wind. Because feelings often mislead us, Pilang decided never to believe in feelings. He did not completely deny the possibility of feeling accurate information, but was skeptical.
Therefore, the vast majority of people will stop when they see a cliff close at hand, but Pilang is not. Feelings can deceive him, so he doesn't believe in feelings. Even if his toes had stepped on the air or he had the feeling of falling forward, he still did not believe that he would fall off a cliff. And what happens even if you fall off a cliff? Can it really hurt? He also remained skeptical. Friends who believe in him,not every one of whom are staunch skeptics—will help him at this time to prevent him from doing something stupid, and without these friends, it is estimated that he will put himself in danger at any time.
If you're not sure that wild dogs want to hurt you, why be afraid of them? Although they bark wildly and rush towards you with their teeth, it does not mean that they will necessarily bite you. And even if you bite, you won't necessarily get hurt. When crossing the street, why care about oncoming vehicles? Those cars probably won't hit you. Who really knows? Anyway, what is the difference between life and death? I don't know how he did it, but Pi Lang succeeded in carrying out this indifferent philosophy throughout his life, completely relying on normal natural emotions and behavior patterns.
These are all legends, and some of the stories may have been made up specifically to make fun of his philosophical ideas. But it is impossible for every story to be fictional, for example there is such a well-known story:
Once, while crossing the sea in a boat, he encountered a huge storm that had never been seen before, and the fierce wind tore the sails to pieces, and the huge waves rolled above the ship. The people around him were shocked, but Pi Lang was calm and did not care. Pi Lang pointed to a piggy on the boat that was eating and told them that this was the state of immobility that philosophers should have.
Pi Lang had been to India when he was young, and perhaps it was that trip to India that inspired him to live a life of difference. There is a tradition in India that many spiritual teachers or masters, in order to achieve inner peace, make their bodies go through incredibly extreme experiences, such as being buried alive, hanging heavy objects on sensitive parts of the body, or not eating for weeks. PiLang's philosophical ideas are also close to mysticism, and no matter how he does it, he must have put into practice the philosophical ideas he advocated. His calmness impressed those around him, he was not agitated by anything, and in his opinion, everything was nothing more than a personal opinion. If the truth can never be discovered, then there is no need to bother yourself. We don't need to have strong beliefs, because firm beliefs always come from delusions.
If you meet Pi Lang, you may think he is a madman, maybe in some way he is really a madman. But his ideas and actions are consistent, and he will in turn feel that your sense of certainty about various things is completely unreasonable and is not conducive to achieving inner peace. You take too many things for granted, as if you had built a house on the beach, and your ideological foundation is not as solid as you think, and it is unlikely to make you happy.
Pi Lang skillfully summed up his philosophical ideas in three questions that anyone who wishes to be happy should ask:
What is the truth of things?
What attitude should we respond to?
What would happen if someone didn't respond with this attitude?
His answers to these questions were simple and straightforward.
First, we can never know the truth about the world because it is beyond our cognitive capacity. No one can know the ultimate truth, because it is impossible for humans to do it, so it is better to simply give up. This view is completely contrary to Plato's theory of form and the philosophical idea of understanding the truth of reality through abstract thinking.
Second, because it is impossible to know the truth, we should not agree with and accept any point of view. Because everything is uncertain, you should avoid making any judgments and live a life without any thoughts or intentions. If you have a wish, it means that you think one thing is better than another. Feeling unhappy is because you don't get what you want. But in fact, you can't know if something is better than others. Therefore, Pi Lang believes that if you want to be happy, you must be free from desire and do not care about the outcome of things, which is the right way to live. Nothing matters, nothing can affect your state of mind, thus achieving inner peace.
Finally, if you guide your life with this philosophy, you will start to become speechless, because there is no opinion on anything, and eventually you will be free from all your troubles, and this is the best life anyone can hope for. It's almost like a religious experience.
This is Pilang's philosophy. This idea seems to work for PiLang himself, but it's hard to imagine achieving the same effect on most other people. Not many people have no opinion on anything as he suggests, and not everyone is surrounded by many friends like him who can help in time. In fact, if everyone guides life with his philosophy, no one will protect these skeptics. They will soon disappear because they will constantly fall off cliffs, walk to the middle of the road and be hit by cars, or be bitten by vicious dogs.
The biggest problem with Pilang's philosophy is that he jumped from "you can't know anything" to "so you should ignore the instinctive reactions and feelings when you are in danger." In reality, human instinct does rescue us from many possible dangerous situations. Instinct is not entirely reliable, but that doesn't mean it should be ignored. It is said that Pi Lang also dodged sideways when a dog tried to bite him, so even if he wanted to completely overcome his instinctive reaction, he could not do it. Therefore, using Pi Lang's skepticism to guide life seems perverse, and it may not be able to bring inner peace as he imagined.
There is absolutely no problem with being skeptical of Pilang.com. You may ask: If you do something like Pi Lang that may bring danger to yourself, can you really bring inner peace? This may work for him, but what evidence is there that it might work for you? You may not be 100% sure that a vicious dog will bite you, but if you are 99 percent sure, then don't take the risk.
In the history of philosophy, not all skeptics are as extreme as Pilang. Moderate skepticism is a good tradition in philosophy: questioning any assumptions, carefully studying the evidence that supports our beliefs, rather than living a life of doubting everything at all times. Questioning with a skeptical attitude is at the heart of philosophy, and in this sense all great philosophers are skeptics.
Skepticism is the opposite of dogmatism. Dogmatic people are very confident that they hold the truth, while philosophers challenge dogma and ask people the question: Why do you believe you are doing the right thing, and what evidence is there to support your conclusions? Socrates and Aristotle did this, as did philosophers today, and they did not do it to embarrass others. The purpose of taking a philosophical position of mild skepticism is to get closer to the truth, or at least to show that we have limited knowledge and limited ability to know the truth. To be such a skeptic, you don't need to risk falling off a cliff, but you do need to be prepared to ask embarrassing questions and be critical of the answers people give you. (End)
(This article is excerpted from Nigel Warburton's A Brief History of Philosophy, translated by Lü Pin Zhu Zhu)