Nebula:
- Yes, I use the American “skepticism” instead of “scepticism” because it eliminates any potential misreading as “septic” and so possibly reduces friction when processing; plus, I just prefer it.
In TM’s worldview, implicit skepticism refers to a state of mind (which can be manifest in externalisations of thought, such as speech and writing) in which all thoughts (some of which can be considered “opinions” or “beliefs”) are entertained with some degree of uncertainty. That is, no thought is ever accepted as (representing) absolute truth.
TM emphasises that all thoughts expressed here, and elsewhere, are bathed in this implicit skepticism. So, it should be assumed that any thought externalised is never considered indubitably, 100% true, even when it is expressed in a way suggesting the expressor (in this case, TM) regards it as truth.
For example, the statement, “Economics is the study of resource allocation under constraints.” can be thought equivalent to something like, “TM currently conceives the term ‘economics’ as representing the study of resource allocation under constraints.”
Statement qualifiers such as
- “TM currently conceives X as Y”
- “in TM’s current worldview, X is Y”
- “TM’s current view of X is Y (where the statement is represented by “X is Y”) serve to make explicit this implicit skepticism, and will be used whenever TM feels inclined. In the absence of these qualifiers (or “explicitisers”), one should be assumed implicit in any statement made.