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Literary notes about skepticism (AI summary)

In literature, skepticism appears as a versatile motif—sometimes a quiet, creeping doubt that undermines accepted truths ([1], [2]), at other times a forceful challenge to conventional belief systems. It manifests both in the introspective disposition of characters who withhold their trust, as when personal convictions are questioned ([3], [4]), and in scholarly discourses critiquing empirical methods or religious dogmatism ([5], [6], [7]). Moreover, it often serves as a narrative device that juxtaposes raw human fidelity with critical, even cynical, inquiry, inviting readers to reflect on the balance between belief and doubt ([8], [9]).
  1. Even as it was, skepticism crept in with its doubts and questionings.
    — from Old Times on the Upper Mississippi The Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863 by George Byron Merrick
  2. One word, also, about the reproach that in following this sort of an empirical method we are handing ourselves over to systematic skepticism.
    — from The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature by William James
  3. My wife, however, did not share my skepticism.
    — from Sometub's Cruise on the C. & O. CanalThe narrative of a motorboat vacation in the heart of Maryland by John Pryor Cowan
  4. As the narrative proceeded, one restrained his skepticism till he was almost ready to burst, and then vociferated, "Silas, that's a lie!"
    — from Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 2 (of 2) by William Howitt
  5. Be that as it may, our task is to discover the application of Hume’s skepticism to our own problems in some clear example.
    — from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross
  6. Properly to bound our discussion of Humian skepticism, a few words have to be said concerning the empirical method of the sciences.
    — from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross
  7. But what interested me most about him was his religious skepticism.
    — from McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1 by Various
  8. Supersensual truth is deserved and discovered by those who overcome their natural materialistic skepticism.'
    — from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
  9. I think God will forgive us our skepticism sooner than our Inquisitions.
    — from A Preface to Politics by Walter Lippmann

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