ABSTRACT
The story of 'Zhuangzi and the butterfly' must be one of the best-known anecdotes in the philosophical literature. The lack of even-handedness in the treatment of Zhuangzi and the butterfly is replicated in the historical record. The author's attitude, towards Zhuangzi and his disciples and other epistemological sceptics, may seem to echo G. E. Moore's dismissive stance. The uncertainty about the status of external objects in an external world seems to fall into the former category and the Zhuangzi anecdote to fall into the latter. The Zhuangzi story, is undermined by the fact of ascribing it to a particular historical philosopher and discussing it. To pursue the sceptical agenda without unsceptically taking for granted the community of minds, the human and material world, that enables to talk and discuss the items on the agenda; to find an appropriate level of scepticism that is an expressible level of scepticism, so that it can be shared and debated without being undermined.
