"This discussion of Western thought takes the unique approach of interpreting skepticism - i.e., doubts about knowledge claims and the criteria for making such claims - as an important stimulus for the development of philosophy. The authors argue that practically every great thinker from the time of the Greeks to the present - from Plato to Moore and Wittgenstein - has produced theories designed to forestall or refute skepticism. In other words, they seek to demonstrate that knowledge claims are meaningful and that acceptable criteria to ground them can be established. The influence of and responses to such twentieth-century skeptics as Russell and Derrida are also discussed critically."--BOOK JACKET.