The Active Fallibilism of a Situational Skeptic

The Great Instauration, a Baconian project, is a form of active fallibilism about natural knowledge. The practice is borrowed from Plato’s new form of skepticism. Meno challenged Socrates with a puzzle about his search for knowledge, which Plato solved by showing that Socrates, who claimed he knew nothing, nevertheless may have known accurate answers to his questions. Perhaps all our knowledge of affirmative principles is a recollection of what we know innately. Therefore, Socrates did not even know that he knew nothing, as he claimed! Later, this motto was adopted by some Academics in Plato’s school. Plato adopted the method of hypothesis in the Meno, which led him to practice active fallibilism—always question your best wisdom! If he endorsed a belief in one situation, he challenged it later in another. Plato’s account is incoherent in the end when applied to his fallibilism. But the clash may not arise explicitly if the situations of the conflicting statements do not coincide. Situational skepticism is not a solution, but the best Plato and his skeptical followers, the Academics, could have done without naming fallibilism as their doctrine.