Augustine, Epicurus, and Skepticism

I've just found a prima facie interesting article published a few years ago:

C. Bolyard, "Augustine, Epicurus, and External World Skepticism," Journal of the History of Philosophy 44 (2006): 157-68.

The paper can be found here.

A Swamp with Deers

The reason I haven't posted much these days is that, since last Monday, I'm in Washington, DC, with a research fellowship. This is my first time in the US and I'm going to be here only for three weeks, so I'm trying to enjoy the place.

DC is insanely humid and sticky (much more than Bs. As.), but one of the things I like the most about this place is that one can stumble upon deers quite often. These animals are so bloody cool. The other night, I got lost in the woods near the place where I'm staying, and at one point I found myself standing by a really big one -- I think he even had antlers.

As regards academic activities, I'm going to present two papers on skepticism and disagreement, a topic on which I've been working for a while. The talks will be at Northwestern and Johns Hopkins, and I expect to receive artillery fire, which will be a good test. I'm also supposed to present a report on my research project on whether the skeptic can search for truth. I'm still thinking about how to do it, since no one else here works on skepticism and I feel I won't be able to say anything intelligible.

Workshop in Brazil

On October 5-7, a workshop entitled "Crença, Razão e Autoconhecimento" (Belief, Reason, and Self-Knowledge) will be held in Salvador, Bahia (Brazil). The event is organized by the Programa de Pós-graduação de Filosofia, Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas da UFBA. Here is the program (in Portuguese):

05 de outubro:

9h: Plínio J. Smith (UNIFESP, CNPq): "Porchat e o conflito das filosofias."

15h: Paulo F. E. Faria (UFRGS, CNPq): "Principio de fechamento epistêmico e o princípio de transmissibilidade da justificação"

06 de outubro

9h: Pablo Quintanilla (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú): "Autoconocimiento: Una perspectiva evolutiva y comparativa."

15h: Waldomiro J. Silva Filho (UFBA, CNPq): "Vivendo sem ideias claras e distintas."

07 de outubro

9h: Plínio J. Smith (UNIFESP, CNPq): "Consciência, vaidade e surpresa."

For more information, contact Waldomiro Silva at waldomiro.silva@pq.cnpq.br.

Evolution and Skepticism

A recent issue of the South African journal Philosophical Papers features Greg Littmann's "Darwin's Doubt Defended: Why Evolution Supports Skepticism". The paper can be downloaded for free here.

Workshop on Wittgenstein's On Certainty

On September 20th, a workshop on Wittgenstein's On Certainty will be held at the University of Hertfordshire, De Havilland Campus, Room N106, from 1 to 5 pm. The occasion will be the UK launch of Annalisa Coliva's Moore and Wittgenstein: Scepticism, Certainty and Common Sense (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). There will be 30-minute talks by Annalisa Coliva, Britt Harrison, and Danièle Moyal-Sharrock, to be followed by coffee and a substantial discussion period involving the audience. Although the workshop is free, registration is required: send an email to d.moyal-sharrock@herts.ac.uk.

Routledge Companion to Epistemology

The Routledge Companion to Epistemology (2011), edited by Sven Bernecker and Duncan Pritchard, contains two parts dealing explicitly with skepticism:

Part 5: Skepticism

37. "Phyrrhonian Skepticism," Richard Bett

38. "Cartesian Skepticism," Steven Luper

39. "Skeptical Doubts About Self-Knowledge," Fred Dretske

40. "Skepticism About Knowledge of Other Minds," Anita Avramides

41. "Skepticism About Inductive Knowledge," Joe Morrison

42. "Rule-Following Skepticism," Alexander Miller

43. "Moral Skepticism," Geoffrey Sayre-McCord

Part 6: Responses to Skepticism

44. "Skepticism and Anti-Realism," Richard Schantz

45. "Skepticism and Epistemic Externalism," Richard Fumerton

46. "Skepticism and Semantic Externalism," Anthony Brueckner