Porchat and Skepticism

The latest issue of the Brazilian journal Discurso is a special issue devoted to the thought of Oswaldo Porchat Pereira: “Ceticismo, Filosofia e História da Filosofia: Homenagem a Oswaldo Porchat.” At least eight of the articles deal with skepticism. The entire issue can be accessed for free here.

Workshop on Mendelssohn’s Commentary on Qohelet

On February, 1-2, the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies (Hamburg) will host the online workshop “Scepticism in Mendelssohn’s Commentary on Qohelet and His Other Hebrew Writings.” For complete information, click here.

Decleva Caizzi's Pirroniana

In 1981, Fernanda Decleva Caizzi published Pirrone: Testimonianze (Napoli: Bibliopolis), which contains the testimonia on Pyrrho in Greek and Latin together with an Italian translation and an extensive commentary. Last year, a revised version was published under the title Pirroniana (Milano: LED). This new edition contains in addition an English translation of the textual fragments by Mauro Bonazzi and David Sedley, and three papers on Pyrrhonian skepticism by Decleva Caizzi published in 1980, 1992, and 1996. The good news is that the entire book can be legally downloaded for free here.

Pyrrhonism in On Certainty

The latest issue of the Italian journal Elenchos (41/2, 2020) contains Roger Eichorn's “The Elusive Third Way: The Pyrrhonian Illumination in Wittgenstein’s On Certainty.” It can be found here.

Lecture on Suspension of Judgment

On January 12th, 2021, as part of the Maimonides Lectures on Scepticism, Alexandra Zinke (Tübingen) will give the talk “Suspension of Judgment in Pyrrhonian and Cartesian Scepticism.” The talk will take place online. For more information, go here.

Agnosticism

There's a new collective volume on religious agnosticism: Francis Fallon and Gavin Hyman (eds.), Agnosticism: Explorations in Philosophy and Religious Thought (OUP, 2020). More information here.

Sextus and Religion

The latest issue of Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy (LVIII, Summer 2020) contains Máté Veres's article “Sextus Empiricus on Religious Dogmatism.” Information about the issue can be found here.

Summer School at Maimonides Centre

There's a Call for Applications for the summer school “Facets of Early Modern Scepticism,” which will take place at the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies (Hamburg University) on July 18-23, 2021. For complete information, go here.

Jewish Andalusian Freethinking

On December 1st, Sarah Stroumsa (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) will give the online lecture “The Voice of Written Texts and the Myth of Jewish Andalusian Freethinking” as part of the Maimonides Lectures on Scepticism. For more information, go here.

10th Anniversary Issue of IJSS

The latest issue of the International Journal for the Study of Skepticism is a double special issue that celebrates the 10th anniversary of the journal. It combines papers dealing with historical figures—Gorgias, Plato, Sextus Empiricus, and Isabelle de Charrière—with papers offering systematic discussions of issues in epistemology, ethics, and the philosophy of religion. It can be found here.

Moore against the Skeptic

A couple of weeks ago, Jonathan Birch published the short, accessible piece “G. E. Moore’s hands vs. Radical Scepticism” on the blog of The London School of Economics and Political Science. You can find it here.

Annual Lecture at MCAS

On October 27th, Gianni Paganini (Università del Piemonte Orientale) will give, via zoom, the annual lecture at the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies (Universität Hamburg). He will talk about “Facts, Fictions, and Hypotheses: Hume’s Scepticism and Newton’s Method in the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion”. For more information, go here.

Ethics and Mathematics

Those interested in anti-realist forms of skepticism in ethics and mathematics might want to take a look at Justin Clarke-Doane's recent book, Morality and Mathematics (OUP, 2020). Here's the abstract:

To what extent are the subjects of our thoughts and talk real? This is the question of realism. In this book, Justin Clarke-Doane explores arguments for and against moral realism and mathematical realism, how they interact, and what they can tell us about areas of philosophical interest more generally. He argues that, contrary to widespread belief, our mathematical beliefs have no better claim to being self-evident or provable than our moral beliefs. Nor do our mathematical beliefs have better claim to being empirically justified than our moral beliefs. It is also incorrect that reflection on the "genealogy" of our moral beliefs establishes a lack of parity between the cases. In general, if one is a moral antirealist on the basis of epistemological considerations, then one ought to be a mathematical antirealist as well. And, yet, Clarke-Doane shows that moral realism and mathematical realism do not stand or fall together -- and for a surprising reason. Moral questions, insofar as they are practical, are objective in a sense that mathematical questions are not, and the sense in which they are objective can only be explained by assuming practical anti-realism. One upshot of the discussion is that the concepts of realism and objectivity, which are widely identified, are actually in tension. Another is that the objective questions in the neighborhood of factual areas like logic, modality, grounding, and nature are practical questions too. Practical philosophy should, therefore, take center stage.

Evolution in Morality and Theological Ethics

The latest issue of the European Journal for Philosophy of Religion includes a section devoted to “Evolutionary Research on Morality and Theological Ethics.” The issue also contains a couple of papers on religious agnosticism.