New Book

Lorenzo Corti's book Scepticisme et langage has finally been published by Vrin. For information, go here.

Middle Platonism and Skepticism

Since I'm working on a paper on ancient skepticism, I've been reading several essays on the presence of Academic skepticism and the responses to it in the so-called 'Middle Platonists'. There's increasing interest in this subject among scholars working on philosophy in the early imperial period. I thought some of you might be interested in a list of some of the papers and books on the topic:

J. Opsomer, “Favorinus versus Epictetus on the Philosophical Heritage of Plutarch. A Debate on Epistemology”, in J. Mossman (ed.), Plutarch and his Intellectual World. London–Swansea: Duckworth–Classical Press of Wales, 1997.

Opsomer, In Search of the Truth: Academic Tendencies in Middle Platonism. Brussels: Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van Belgie, 1998.

M. Bonazzi, Academici e Platonici. Il dibattito antico sullo scetticismo di Platone. Milano: Led, 2003.

Bonazzi, “Contro la rappresentazione sensibile: Plutarco tra l’Academia e il platonismo”, Elenchos 25 (2004).

Opsomer, “Plutarch’s Platonism Revisited”, and G. Boys-Stones, “Alcinous, Didaskalikos 4: in Defence of Platonism”. Both papers appear in a collective volume edited by M. Bonazzi and V. Celluprica, L’eredità platonica. Studi sul platonismo da Arcesilao a Proclo. Napoli: Bibliopolis, 2005.

C. Brittain, “Middle Platonists on Academic Scepticism”, in R. Sharples & R. Sorabji (eds.), Greek & Roman Philosophy 100 BC–200 AD, vol. II. London: Institute of Classical Studies, 2007.

New Article

The latest issue of Philosophy and Phenomenological Research features James Beebe's "The Abductivist Reply to Skepticism". Here's the abstract:

"Abductivists claim that explanatory considerations (e.g., simplicity, parsimony, explanatory breadth, etc.) favor belief in the external world over skeptical hypotheses involving evil demons and brains in vats. After showing how most versions of abductivism succumb fairly easily to obvious and fatal objections, I explain how rationalist versions of abductivism can avoid these difficulties. I then discuss the most pressing challenges facing abductivist appeals to the a priori and offer suggestions on how to overcome them."

To access the paper, click here.

Skepticism Conference

Here is the program of the conference on skepticism that is going to take place in Mexico City on November 23-25 (click on the image for the venue):

Monday 23

10:00-13:00

1. Lorena García: ‘Sosa’s responses to dreaming skepticism’.

2. Jonatan García y Ricardo Vázquez: ‘Confiabilismo, contextualismo y el problema pirrónico’.

3. Hugo Enrique Sánchez: ‘Escepticismo y Contextualismo (una reivindicación del pirronismo)’.

15:00-18:00

4. José de Teresa: ‘Lidiando con los Tropos de Agripa’.

5. Armando Cíntora: ‘Pirronismo y Conocimiento Científico’.

6. Miguel Ángel Fernández: ‘¿Subyace el principio de clausura al escepticismo cartesiano?’

Tuesday 24

10:00-13:00

7. Alejandro Tomasini: ‘El mito de las proposiciones bisagra'.

8. Bernardo Bolaños: ‘¿Escépticos o negadores? De la noción de verdad como criterio de demarcación en historia de la filosofía’.

9. Jorge Tagle: ‘Naturalismo metodológico’.

Wednesday 25

11:00-13:00

10. Jorge Ornelas: ‘Externismo, Disyuntivismo y Antiescepticismo en McDowell’.

11. Álvaro Pelaez: ‘Escepticismo y argumentos trascendentales. El caso de McDowell’.

Forthcoming Book

I've just found out that, next year, Oxford University Press will publish a collection of essays on skepticism by Anthony Brueckner (UC Santa Barbara). For information, go here.

Call for Papers

I've just received this information about a conference that will take place next year:

Papers are invited for presentation on the topic “Scepticism between Science, Literature and Philosophy”, for a one-day workshop in the frame of the 12th International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI).

The conference will be held at Çankaya University, Ankara, Turkey, on August 2-6, 2010.

Please submit an abstract (one page) by January 1st, 2010 to:

Sébastien Charles (Université de Sherbrooke, Canada): Sebastien.Charles@USherbrooke.ca

Speakers will have 20 to 30 minutes to present their papers in English or French (exact time to be confirmed, depending of the number of papers accepted).

Presentation of the workshop:

The analysis of the revival of scepticism in early modern times, which was done notably by Richard Popkin, has shown the importance of the sceptic figure in order to better understand early modern philosophy. In particular, it has shown the real function of Cartesianism, which was the most prodigious war machine against sceptical philosophy. But the diffusion of scepticism at that time was larger than the philosophical field; it also touched literature and science, creating new problems and hypotheses. In fact, scepticism was one of the major problems and matters of interest of the République des lettres. Given these conditions, the way in which literature presented the sceptic figure still needs exploring. It is well-known, for instance, that Molière made comical use of the sceptic’s suspension of judgement. What other representations can we find of this figure in early modern literature? And how was scepticism addressed by a science that pretended to reach a universal truth? A specific focus on such major figures of scepticism in early modern times as Montaigne, Gassendi, Huet, La Mothe le Vayer, or Bayle, could help us answer these two questions and understand the nature and function of scepticism in regard to literature and science. For example, by insisting on the relativity of customs and habits, the sceptics have forced writers to take into account other cultures, and even to write in favour of them. And by evoking the difficulty to find the truth, even for modern scientists, they have encouraged scholars to adopt a probabilistic conception of science, which has some relation to later empiricism. In this perspective, scepticism is crucial to our comprehension of early modern times, and it is important to deal with other aspects than just the philosophical ones in order to better evaluate its impact on this time-period.

Sextus' Adversus Dogmaticos III-IV

Back in BA; I hope some day I'll learn how to sleep on planes. Anyway, I think some of you might be interested in reading that Richard Bett (Johns Hopkins) is working on a new English translation of Sextus Empiricus' Against the Physicists (=Adversus Dogmaticos III-IV or, as some prefer, Adversus Mathematicos IX-X). The book is under contract with Cambridge University Press, which already published Annas & Barnes' translation of the Pyrrhonian Outlines in 2000, and Bett's translation of Against the Logicians in 2005.

'Dossier' on Skepticism

Last night I came back to Rome and tomorrow I'm leaving for BA. Rome really is a beautiful city; particularly its downtown is a place of great charm and the traffic is less messy than I expected. I should probably add that its women are almost as pretty as those from BA ;)

But since I don't want this blog to turn into a kind of insufferable diary of my trip and since it is supposed to provide information on skepticism, here is something I've found thanks to Thomas Bénatouïl's "liste de diffusion" on ancient philosophy. The last issue of the Revue des études anciennes features a 'dossier' on skepticism entitled "Une tradition sceptique: la réception des Academica de Cicéron dans l'antiquité".

- Valéry Laurand, "Énésidème et l'Académie: les pièges d'un langage sans horizon".

- Carlos Lévy, "Favorinus et les Academica".

- Sophie van der Meeren, "Lactance et les Academica de Cicéron: citations et polémiques".

- Emmanuel Bermon, "'Contra Academicos vel de Academicis' (Retract. I, 1): saint Augustin et les Academica de Cicéron".

- Anne-Isabelle Bouton, "Augustin lecteur de Cicéron dans le contra Academicos".

The table of contents can be found here.

Durham 2

I gave my last talk here in Europe. I'm quite satisfied with the discussion because it allowed me to clarify some aspects of my interpretation of Agrippan Pyrrhonism and of ancient Pyrrhonism more generally. I also met some interesting people who know Sextus' texts quite well, who have studied other kinds of skepticism, and who have their own skeptical outlooks. We had the opportunity to have a vehement and enriching discussion over dinner. All in all, my trip has been a little exhausting but highly rewarding.

Durham 1

While in Cambridge I gave a talk on the principle of non-contradiction, yesterday in Durham I gave a talk on Pyrrhonian relativism (the same paper delivered in Rome several days ago). There was vigorous discussion with Luca Castagnoli and particularly with George Boys-Stones, which I enjoyed very much. Today I'll deliver a paper on Agrippan Pyrrhonism in which I also examine contemporary interpretations of the Five Modes. This will give me the opportunity to test the soundness of my arguments.

Cambridge 2

Yesterday, I gave my talk at the B Club. The audience in general didn't seem persuaded by my arguments whereas a couple of people found that what I claimed was so obvious that there was no point in writing a paper :-D But all in all, the experience was positive (at least for me).

Today and tomorrow I'll deliver two papers at the Department of Classics and Ancient History of Durham University. I hope they won't find my skeptical outlook too odd.

Cambridge

I've been in Cambridge for three days now. It's a nice small city which seems ideal if one wants to do research, but I imagine that it must be a little difficult to live here if one comes from a big city. In a way, Cambridge reminds me of Fribourg in Switzerland.

Something that has called my attention is that there seem to be more Italians than British over here. Cambridge looks like an Italian colony.

I've had the chance to get my hands on a copy of a paper published some years ago, namely: Lorenzo Corti's "Scale pirroniane: ouden mallon in Sesto Empirico", Dianoia 7 (2002).

Finally, tomorrow I'll give a talk at the B Club (Cambridge's ancient philosophy society). It will be an interesting experience.