Part 1 | Part 2 ntifoundationalism is the position of many philosophers, such as Gorgias . Antifoundationalism is commonly divided into three main catagories: Sophism , Pragmatism, and Skepticism. Antifoundationalism is the rejection of the idea of a single unified whole in which everything is ultimatley interrelated. The existence of what we call knowledge only exists because we have created it. If posed with the question, "if a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around, would it make a sound?" the antifoundationalist may doubt whether the tree even fell in the first place, after all,nobody saw the tree fall in the first place. In essence results don t necessarily define the means. (Edwards 381-385)

An antifoundationalist believes that life is defined by personal experiences. Therefore a person's view of life is an "ongoing self-corrective process" in which "knowlege changes with time." (see inquiry. ) In this respect knowlege is transient, existing only until something better comes along to replace it. (Edwards 381-385)

To an antifoundationalist, learning is only something which man uses to comprehend what society thinks. An antifoundationalist believes that everything exists only because we believe it is there. Therefore reality only exists for the individual, because everything we perceive is from the individual. (Petraglia-Bahri)

This field of thought was highly popular in the ancient Greek and Roman culture, but it is still a widely held view. Antifoundationalists claim that truth only exists in statements, not in facts. We (as a general populous) must then be convinced that these statements are true. If we are convinced... then it is true. If not... then it s false. Scientists must consciously attempt to convince people of their hypotheses, otherwise they are not accepted. Isaac Newton s paper on the structure of light rays is one example of this attempt to convince. Instead of coming right out and stating that light rays are made of particles he says that light behaves "as if" it were made of particles. He does this in order to persuade the skeptic that Newton may be onto something. Later in the paper he gives his complete hypothesis that light is made up of small particles. This is meant to clench his point. It is obvious that Newton doesn t intend for everybody to just believe his latest discovery simply on the merit of a good idea. Instead he hopes that they will give it a chance and maybe accept it as possible. (Gross 569-574)

Mathematical equations and test results are the most common and in many cases the strongest support for an idea. They give results that may (or may not) support a conclusion. Religion is also an extremely strong part of convincing people. A scientist must be very careful not to offend a person s deeply rooted religious beliefs with his theories. It was not until recently that people have accepted the "truth" that the genetic code of organismscan be changed. It was belived that by changing the genetic code man had somehow gained the power to "create life," although no one can even say when life begins. (Bizzell 203-208)

Arguments between scientists on a certain topic are very commonly seeded with emotion. If the facts are disputed then beliefs and emotions are used to convince someone of the validity of one s side. This is one proof of the absurdity of science; whenever a scientist is backed into a corner to prove his hypothesis, he responds with emotions instead of figures.

Skeptics are thouroughly convinced that man is inherently a fool. They beleive that the base of man's foolishness (aswell as his evils) is the human drive to experience pleasure. They looked down upun the gluttons of food and wine. It is for this reason that many skeptics were also stoics, living without physical pleasures so that their minds would be pure. Skeptics (those who were religious) believed that the only way to keep their god from stealing their life was to offer it freely, therefore it could not be taken (at least by force). (Catan 145-163)

Pragmatism is the epistemological belief that truth is relative to its situation. John Dewey gives the example that "smoke means there is fire." He points out that smoke could point towards a fire if the fire was something like a forest fire, but on the other hand if the smoke was coming from a lit cigar, chances are that there would be mo fire to accompany it. Testing the reverse, "fire gives off smoke," yields the same results. The forest fire undobutedly gives off a great deal of smoke, however, a butane flame gives off no smoke. (Dewey 506-7)

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s a system of belief, Antifoundational thought is diverse and even within its domain, radically different ideas take hold. These systems of belief are as unique as the individuals that created them. Some of the more influential figures in antifoundational though include Gorgias , Voltaire, Nietzsche, Kenneth Burke , and Jacques Derrida.

Voltaire was one of the most influential philosophers of the 18th century. Although he was quite religious, he did not believe that we could know definately where we would go after death. He believed since there was no soul and humanity itself was imperfect that only God could determine where we would go after death. This uncertainty and radical idea during his time gained him a stay in the Bastille twice for a combine time of a little over a year. He afterwards criticqued the French justice system as well as the taxation system incorperated by the French Hierarchy.

Nietzsche is one of the most prominant minds of the 19th's century, although he was not very influential until the 20th. His writings were considered racist by some and he is one of the more controversial literary figures studied in the 20th century. One of his ideas was that there was no good or evil. He stated that "good" and "evil" were a result of our comparison against the "pleasure" and "pain" concepts which were interperted by men. He also placed great weight on how we pity, he stated that ". Our pity is a higher and more farsighted pity: we see how man makes himself smaller, how you make him smaller - and there are moments when we behold your very pity with indescribable anxiety, when we resist this pity - when we find your seriousness more dangerous than any frivolity. You want, if possible - and there is no more insane "if possible" - to abolish suffering . " This pity he states is a akin to a plea for attention, and that we seem throught history to want suffering, to want self-destruction. Nietzsche however, did not conclude his ideas within the confinement of simply pity and pain and pleasure. He also explore how we tend to mask the "profound". This is uses to somewhat explain religion, he viewed religion as hidden shame. Where the code of morality evident within it is a mask to hide some dark shame which he feels others would disapprove. This mask he says is required by the profound, because the person requires some "truth" to hide his shame therefore he creates and continually improve upon this mask. (Nietzsche, 220)

One of the more important still living anti-foundationalist of today is Jacques Derrida. His belief is one that one can never be sure that what he know's is actuality, much like his anti-foundationalist forebear's. One of Derrida's essay's "Deconstruction of Actuallity", states that we should not be coerced into forming a absolute sense of actuality, althought there are social norms, we need not "heed" nor "consent" to them. He postulates that all "absolutes" comes to us in "fictional forms;" therefore, the absolute's themselves have been tainted by the method which they were communicated. He states that although "actuality" is in it's way useful, it is also contradictory, "the apparent internationalisation of sources of news and information is often based on the appropriation and monopolisation of channels of information, publication and distribution." In this context, he thinks that althought a "open-minded" culture perspective is presented throught media and technology, much of the persepective, genuine or not, can be lost through the language either that it is presented, or the people that it is presented to. These factors will allow a superfically dualistic idea to be fundamentally dogmatic. (Derrida)

see also Foundationalism.

Works Cited For Part One

Catan, John R., ed. A history of Ancient Philosophy . NY: State University of New York Press, 1990.

Dewey, John. Logic: The Theory of Inquiry . NY: Henery Holt & Co., 1938.

Edwards, Paul, ed. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy . 5 vols. NY: Macmillan, 1967.

Gross, Alan G.. Rhetoric: Concepts, Definitions, Boundaries . Ludlow, Eben, ed. Needham Heights, Mass.: Allyn & Bacon, 1995.

Petraglia-Bahri, Joseph. Lecture on Epistemological Terms. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA. 1995

Works Cited For Part Two

• Nietzsche, Fredrich., Beyond Good and Evil . Kaufmann, Walter trans.
• Derrida, Jacques , "Deconstruction of Actuality".

Part One Last updated 1 December 1995 by Adam Wosotowsky at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Part Two was authored at the Georgia Institute of Technology by Milton He . It was last updated on 3/12/1996