Doubt is a mental state and a behavior typically attached to an argumentative situation.

— As a psychological state, doubt means discomfort and apprehension, S. Emotion. Argumentation is a costly and time-consuming activity, from the cognitive, emotional and interactional points of view. Non-argumentative individuals are reluctant to engage in an argumentative situation, where they will have to face the resistance of the other party.

— At the cognitive level, to doubt is to be in a state of suspended assent of a proposition, or a state of indecision about what to do.

— From a linguistic point of view, doubtful propositions are worded by the speaker, without these being asserted or rejected. In Goffman’s words, the speaker is, at most, the “Author” of the proposition, not its “Principal”; he or she is not committed to the statement, S. Roles.

— From an interactional point of view, doubt is cast upon a turn of speech when this turn is not ratified or overtly rejected by the interlocutor, S. Disagreement; Question. Such rejection cannot remain unfounded and reservations must be justified, either in the addition of arguments supporting another point of view, or by refuting the reasons given in support of the original proposal.

— In a full-blown argumentative situation, one or the other party does not necessarily assume doubt. A party may be absolutely and entirely confident of the truth of his or her argument, and argue that P is the case or the right thing to do in perfectly good faith, whilst the other party will have no doubt that it is not the case. Doubt is systematically taken in charge by the third party.

The dialogue outsources these different operations by giving them specific linguistic shapes and micro-social configurations.

Argumentative doubt, Cartesian doubt, skeptical doubt

Argumentative doubt is opposed to Cartesian doubt. Descartes rejects “all such merely probable knowledge and makes it a rule to trust only what is completely known and incapable of being doubted” ([1628], Rule II; Geach). He reconstructs a system of certain beliefs on the basis of the only absolute certainty, that of the cogito: “I think, therefore I am”. This kind of doubt is opposed to skeptical doubt:

Cartesian doubt does not consist in floating, uncertain, between affirmation and negation. On the contrary, it clearly demonstrates that what is in doubt is false, or insufficiently self-evident, and so cannot be asserted to be true. Skeptic doubt considers uncertainty to be the normal state of thought, whereas Descartes regards it as a disease he wants to cure. Even when he takes up the Skeptics’ arguments, it is in a spirit quite opposite to theirs. (Gilson, Note 1, p. 85. to Descartes [1637])

Argumentative doubt is opposed to skeptical doubt in that it does not privilege the indefinite suspension of assent over resolution of dispute.