Index of Terms

Wittgenstein held that all inquiring and indeed all doubting must rest on assumptions that are taken for granted and not supported by any further evidence.

“[T]he questions that we raise and our doubts depend upon the fact that some propositions are exempt from doubt, are as it were like hinges on which those turn. […] We just can’t investigate everything, and for that reason we are forced to rest content with assumption. If I want the door to run, the hinges must stay put.”

This view has been resurrected by the contemporary philosopher Crispin Wright, who suggests that there are certain things that we are simply entitled to believe.