Epistemological Issues in X-Files

In Field Trip and Bad Blood, a number of epistemological issues come up. The issues of Cartesian skepticism and relativism/perspectivism also arise. However, I believe the writers of these episodes donÐ'ÐŽÐ'Їt find a way to resolve these classical philosophical difficulties.

Some of the epistemological issues in Field Trip are when Scully and Mulder are hallucinating underground, thinking they have escaped from the ground but they are still underground. The epistemological issues in Bad Blood are that Ronnie, the vampire want-to-be, thinks he is a vampire but is not. Ronnie is the same kind as the town people who all, at the end, have green glowing eyes and have obsessive-compulsive disorder and die when a stick is through their heart. Even though it is not a hallucination, Ronnie has his own realism of being a vampire, like in Bela Lugosi movies. Also perspectivism arises in Bad Blood when Scully and Mulder both tell the same story but in their perspective. They both are stuck in their own versions and are over exaggerated

In both episodes Cartesian skepticism arise by showing Scully and Mulder stuck in yellow slime underground but hallucinates that they escaped. Cartesian skepticism is like hallucinations, dreams, deceived by demons, or brains in vats. It is awareness of one's own capability to be deceived. Relativism is identified as the thesis that all points of view are equally valid. It also expresses the view that the meaning and value of human beliefs and behaviors have no absolute reference. Humans understand and evaluate beliefs and behaviours only in terms of, for example, their historical or cultural context. Perspectivism is all perception and ideation takes place from a particular perspective in terms of inner drives as elucidated by the Ð'ÐŽÐ'owill to powerÐ'ÐŽÐ'±. This was developed by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche

The writers of these episodes donÐ'ÐŽÐ'Їt find a way to resolve these classical philosophical difficulties because these all depend on how we look at it and how we want to believe. For example, Ð'ÐŽÐ'oSeeing truth as made, not found- seeing reality as socially constructed- doesnÐ'ÐŽÐ'Їt mean deciding there is nothing Ð'ÐŽÐ'®out there.Ð'ÐŽÐ'Ї It means understanding that all out stories about whatÐ'ÐŽÐ'Їs out there- all out scientific facts,