Talk:Skepticism

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Skeptic vs. Sceptic[edit]

In my Master's degree studies, I've come across a book article that mentions "sceptic" is typically reserved for those who doubt information because of their beliefs, which is the opposite of skeptic that doubt commonly held values until good evidence is supplied.

It seems that there needs to be a strong distinction described in this article that differentiates between skeptics and those who are science deniers or disbelieve evidence that is presented to them because of their beliefs, i.e. sceptics. Leitmotiv (talk) 04:35, 1 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Leitmotiv and thanks for raising this point. As far as I'm aware, the two terms are used as synonyms with the difference being English variant, see [1], [2], and [3]. It's possible that some theorists distinguish them but this may not be standard. I don't think that the main sources used in the article discuss this distinction. If you have a reliable source, we could add a footnote. Phlsph7 (talk) 07:56, 1 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I can't find the book article again. Not surprising since I have like 5 articles to read per class. But it may be that sceptic as a denier is not universal, and it may just be better to mention denier instead. A lot of folks think "skeptic" is a denier and a small statement noting the difference would be handy. Leitmotiv (talk) 15:24, 2 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't feel comfortable about adding a statement if we cannot present a good source to support it. After a short look, I found the following, which states that this distinction is a misconception. Phlsph7 (talk) 08:18, 3 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]