Are there reasons to be skeptical of your knowledge claims?

Skepticism is absolutely necessary to move forward as a society and as an individual. Speaking completely in absolutes can be ignorant and dangerous. Refusing to look to the other side of an argument can lead to a one-sided world. A limited view of any concept only leads to greater difficulties, less innovation, and less open-mindedness. Without skepticism, the multitudes of political philosophies that exist today would disappear. Change could only occur when people began to question the systems that they lived in and/or the validity of their leader(s)'s actions. Without change, every protest, every revolution, every legislative action, and virtually all of history and its implications would disappear. However, one could argue that without all of this, Donald Trump would not be running for president right now.Without skepticism, one runs the risk of losing the basic rights that were promised to them.

Nevertheless, the existence of skepticism itself proposes a conundrum: with skepticism, how can we have a world built on "strong knowledge"? Without complete confidence in a piece of information, this fact immediately becomes "weak knowledge". "Weak knowledge" is deemed essentially useless because of the large margin of error it yields. With humans "standing on the shoulders of giants", basing their knowledge on generally accepted facts (that are still subjected to some level of skepticism), does everything we know become useless? Is everything a construct because we must remain skeptical to survive?

The Allegory of the Cave

1. In the text there are two sources of light: the fire and the sun, i.e. the limited view of the prisoners and the knowledge of the outside world. Do you think they represent different kinds of knowledge (i.e. a more limited understanding of a  concept vs. complete understanding)? Are there any real life examples of superficial knowledge vs. in-depth knowledge?
2. How we understand/perceive other people's emotions can be an example of a "cave" that people live in. Do you think there is a difference between sympathizing and empathizing? Is one more effective than the other? Do you think that one feels different when empathizing vs. when sympathizing with someone?
3. Do you think there are any "caves" that we will never be able to escape? Why or why not?