Friday, February 29, 2008

Pyrrhonian Conference Update

Since my last post on the conference on Pyrrhonism to be held next August in Buenos Aires, other speakers have confirmed their participation, namely, Otávio Bueno (University of Miami) and Lorenzo Corti (Fonds National Suisse de la Recherche Scientifique). Additional speakers will be confirmed presently. The updated conference website can be found here. Among other things, you'll find the provisional program.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Conference on Epistemic Agency

In Duncan's blog Epistemic Value I've seen a reference to a conference on epistemic agency which will be held next April at the Université de Genève. From the description of the conference, it seems that it may be of interest to those working on skepticism. It is also worth noting that the conference will follow a one-week visit by John Greco, who will give three lectures on epistemic normativity. For information, go here.


Monday, February 25, 2008

Book on Mackie's Moral Error Theory

Richard Joyce and Simon Kirchin are editing A World Without Values: Essays on John Mackie's Moral Error Theory (forthcoming at Springer). The purpose of this volume is to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mackie’s Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong (Penguin, 1977). As you probably know, Mackie espoused a position usually called 'ontological moral skepticism' or 'skepticism about moral reality'.

The contributors include John Burgess, David Copp, Dan Demetriou, Richard Garner, Joyce, Kirchin, Don Loeb, Graham Oddie, David Phillips, Charles Pigden, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Michael Smith, and Caroline West.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Special Issue of Philosophiques

The forthcoming issue of the Canadian journal Philosophiques is a double topic issue. The topics are "Les valeurs de l'ironie" and "Le scepticisme à l'âge classique". This latter part is edited by Sébastien Charles (Université de Sherbrooke). The contributors are Frédéric Brahami, Rodrigo Brandão, Jean-Pierre Cavaillé, Sébastien Charles, Chris Laursen, Thomas Lennon, José Maia Neto, and Gianni Paganini. You'll find the topic description and the table of contents here.

Monday, February 18, 2008

ANPOF Meeting

The "XIII Encontro Nacional de Filosofia" of the Associação Nacional de Pós-graduação em Filosofia (ANPOF) of Brazil will be held October 6-10 in the city of Canela, Rio Grande do Sul. The abstract submission deadline is February 29. For more information, go here.

At this meeting, several scholars who are part of (or are related to) the working group "Ceticismo" of the ANPOF will give papers either about skepticism in contemporary philosophy or about the history of skepticism. For information about this group, click here.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Fogelin's New Book Project

Robert Fogelin is working on a new book: Pyrrhonian Reflections on Meaning and Truth. It will be the companion to his well-known Pyrrhonian Reflections on Knowledge and Justification (OUP, 1994), in which he examines how the argumentative strategies found in Sextus Empiricus’ works can be applied to present-day epistemological debates. He claims that the contemporary epistemological theories he considers – namely, foundationalism and coherentism – cannot meet the challenge posed by the Modes of Agrippa. As you probably know, Fogelin describes his own outlook as neo-Pyrrhonian.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Paganini's Forthcoming Book

Next October Vrin will publish Gianni Paganini's Skepsis: Le débat des modernes sur le scepticisme: Montaigne – Le Vayer – Campanella - Hobbes – Descartes – Bayle. As a preview, I copy the contents - which to the best of my knowledge can't be found on the web:

Chap. I
La redécouverte du phénomène
Montaigne vs Sanches

1. « Qu’il n’y a point de science » : Montaigne contre Sanches
2. Deux critiques de la connaissance sensible
3. L’aristotélisme « implicite » de Sanches et le paradigme de la « normalité »
4. Montaigne: l’abandon de la species et la découverte du problème sceptique
5. L’invention de l’apparence. Montaigne et le commentaire des Hypotyposes par Estienne
6. Le phénomène comme mixte
7. L’introduction du doute dans la modernité

Chap. II
Le scepticisme des anciens et des modernes
La Mothe Le Vayer et le “Pyrrhonisme tout pur”

1. Sources antiques, problèmes modernes
2. L’ “obstinée varieté” de la nature: le douteur et le “joueur de marionettes”
3. Le sceptique et les “novateurs”
4. « Les phénomènes de notre douteuse éthique »
5. Scepticisme et critique de l’imposture: l’ “illusion” du prodige
6. “Parallèles” insidieux
7. La damnation de Pyrrhon et l’athéisme de Sexte

Chap. III
Le scepticisme et la “métaphysique nouvelle”
Tommaso Campanella, Marin Mersenne et René Descartes

1. Campanella et les doutes du scepticisme
2. Rêve et veille, sagesse et folie
3: Le dépassement du scepticisme : perception de la passion et qualités premières de l’être
4. Scientia modica et exilis
5. Toujours la connaissance est connaissance de soi
6. L’influence cachée : Mersenne
7. L’influence niée : Descartes
8. Autour du cogito
9. La primauté du sentir et l’expérience de soi

Chap. IV
Phénomènes et corps
Thomas Hobbes, le scepticisme continental et la réforme de la “philosophie première”

1. Apparitions unto us et world without us
2. La scène primitive du scepticisme
3. Lectures anciennes et modernes
4. Unica vera basis rerum : “fantasmes” et corps en mouvement
5. Hobbes et le scepticisme de la première Méditation
6. Protagoras, Théétète et la doctrine des phénomènes
7. Les choses “occultes” et leurs signes : Hobbes et Gassendi
8. Aller au delà des “fantasmes” : la fonction de la causalité
9. Songe et veille : fantasmes sans corps et corps sans fantasmes
10. Accidents, phénomènes et conjectures rationnelles : la solution du De corpore

Chap. V
Du bon usage du doute
Descartes et les sceptiques modernes

1. Le scepticisme des anciens : une “soupe rechauffée” ?
2. Descartes, “les sceptiques d’aujourd’hui” et la méthode des “apparences”
3. Le modèle des “athées sceptiques”
4. “Ces sceptiques qui vont au-delà de toutes les limites du douter” : doute cartésien et doute libertin
5. “Irrésolution” libertine, “résolution” cartésienne
6. Le doute dans les Regulae : Socrate sceptique
7. “L’ignorance de Socrate ou l’incertitude des Pyrrhoniens” : le “doute universel” dans la Recherche de la vérité
8. La logique du doute
9. Descartes et Sanches : scepticisme et connaissance de soi
10. Interroger le contexte

Chap. VI
Après Descartes
Scepticisme, véracité et omnipotence divines chez Bayle

1. Les origines du scepticisme: la “mauvaise chute” de Xénophane
2. L’existence idéale des objets mathématiques
3. La réduction aux phénomènes : Bayle, Foucher, Leibniz
4. Omnipotence et tromperie: origines médiévales et débats calvinistes
5. Le contexte cartésien : le problème de la garantie de la véracité divine
6. Le contexte post-cartésien : Bayle et le débat entre Malebranche et Arnauld sur l’existence des corps
7. L’impossibilité de la théodicée de l’erreur

Friday, February 8, 2008

Epistemology Conference

Juan Comesaña is organizing the Wisconsin Epistemology Conference, which will be held next May. The speakers include Earl Conee, Richard Feldman, Alvin Goldman, Ernest Sosa, and Timothy Williamson. You can find the conference website here.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Tenth Symposium Hellenisticum

Good news: the Proceedings of the Tenth Symposium Hellenisticum have been published.

A.M. Ioppolo and D.N. Sedley (eds.), Pyrrhonists, Praticians, Platonizers. Hellenistic philosophy in the period 155–86 BC. Tenth Symposium Hellenisticum. Elenchos 47. Napoli: Bibliopolis, 2007.

Among the contributions bearing directly or indirectly upon skepticism, we find:

Julia Annas, "Carneades’ Classification of Ethical Theories".

Anna Maria Ioppolo, "L'assenso nella filosofia di Clitomaco: un problema di linguaggio?"

Malcolm Schofield, "Aenesidemus: Pyrrhonist and «Heraclitean»".

For more information, click here.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

NYU Conference

It has proved very difficult to obtain more detailed information about the NYU conference on skepticism that will take place in Florence next June. So, if anyone knows something about the speakers and their talks, please let me know by writing a comment or sending me an e-mail.