Αporia
Devoted to Skepticism
Friday, June 27, 2025
Issue 15.2 of IJSS
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Summer School "The Problem of Skepticism"
Both Kantian and post-Kantian Idealism emerged out of an engagement with problems of skepticism. Kant was famously led to develop his critical philosophy after being awoken from his ‘dogmatic slumbers’ by Hume’s empiricist skepticism, whilst his practical philosophy continually wrestles with the problem of how to respond to skeptical demands to prove the validity of the moral law – and of whether we need to. His idealist successors then worried that Kant’s own philosophy itself entailed skeptical consequences: a restriction of cognition to appearances, the relegation of metaphysical truths to the realm of faith and a banishment of moral worth from the realm of the knowable. These problems, they thought, were symptomatic of Kant’s remaining within a framework shaped by the problematic of modern skepticism. To be a true science, they thought, philosophy had to confront and overcome the radical challenge of ancient skepticism. Assessments of their success or failure in doing so went on to determine the course of German philosophy.
This year’s summer school engages with this complex of issues, which will be explored through a series of workshops and keynote lectures. The summer school will be led by Markus Gabriel and Michael Forster, with keynote speakers including Karl Schafer (UT Austin), Jessica Berry (Georgia State), Dietmar Heidemann (Luxembourg), Nick Stang (Toronto), and others.
Date: August 11-22, 2025
Location: International Centre for Philosophy NRW, Poppelsdorfer Allee 28, 53115 Bonn.
If you wish to attend, please submit an application consisting of a CV (max 2 pages) and a statement of interest (max 1 page) combined in one document to Alex Englander (alexeng@uni-bonn.de) by June 10th.
For students who require financial assistance to cover travel and accommodation expenses, there will be a small number of stipends available. If you require a stipend, please indicate this in your statement of interest.
Monday, May 19, 2025
A request
Friday, May 9, 2025
The New Academy
A new book on the skeptical Academy appeared in French earlier this year:
Enzo Godinot, La Nouvelle Académie. Paris: Hermann, 2025.
Further information is available here.
Friday, May 2, 2025
Academic Skepticism in Contemporary Philosophy
In case you're interested, my article “The Contemporary Reception of Academic Skepticism” has just been published online as part of the volume Cicero’s Academici Libri, edited by Francesco Verde (Berlin: De Gruyter). At the moment, it can be read for free here.
Monday, March 24, 2025
Issue 15.1 of IJSS
Issue 15.1 of the International Journal for the Study of Skepticism has just been published. It contains two articles, one discussion note, and two book reviews. It can be found here.
Sunday, February 2, 2025
Issue 14.4 of IJSS
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Popkin and Skepticism
Thursday, December 12, 2024
Skepticism in the 16th Century
Friday, December 6, 2024
Error Theory and Fictionalism
There's a new book by Richard Joyce on moral error theory and moral fictionalism:
Richard Joyce, From Error to Fiction. Oxford University Press, 2024.
This is a topic on which he has published extensively, and so I'm curious to see what new insights he has to offer in this work. For further information, visit here.
Monday, December 2, 2024
Book on Disagreement
My short book, Disagreement (CUP, 2024), has just been released and is available for free download for the next four weeks. While it focuses primarily on the skeptical implications of disagreement, it also touches on other related themes.
Monday, November 11, 2024
Translation of The Modes of Scepticism
A few months ago, a French translation by Dimitri Cunty of the classic book on the Ten Modes of Aenesidemus, The Modes of Scepticism (CUP, 1985) by J. Annas & J. Barnes's, was published. For more information, go here.
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Issue 14.3 of IJSS
Issue 14.3 of the International Journal for the Study of Skepticism has now been published. The contents can be found here.