Conference on Pyrrhonism

I've started working on the web page for the conference on Pyrrhonism and its impact on early modern and contemporary philosophy that will take place here in Buenos Aires in August 2008. Though there's still much work to do, you can find some information here.

Conference on Skepticism in Modern Philosophy

Next Monday begins the international conference on skepticism in modern philosophy organized by José Raimundo Maia Neto. The conference will take place in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) and will include talks by important scholars from Brazil, Europe and the US. As I said in a previous post, the program can be found here.

Published in 2005 - Final Part

The last two books I'll refer to concern contemporary discussions of epistemological skepticism.

- Duncan Pritchard, Epistemic Luck. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Pritchard defends what he calls a neo-Moorean safety-based externalism. As regards the notion of epistemic luck, he distinguishes between veritic luck and reflective luck, affirming that his safety-based view deals successfully with the former but not with the latter. An interesting aspect of the book is that it takes into consideration Pyrrhonian skepticism, claiming that the challenge posed by the Modes of Agrippa concerns the problem of reflective luck and not that of “veritic” epistemic luck. Therefore, the Pyrrhonian attack is not directed against knowledge simpliciter but only against internalist knowledge, so that Pyrrhonism is compatible with widespread externalist knowledge. Certainly, this is a contentious claim. For more information about this book, click here.

- Bryan Frances, Scepticism Comes Alive. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Frances claims to have discovered a new kind of skepticism that cannot be countered by present-day responses to traditional skepticism. What characterizes this type of skepticism is that it is based upon live scientific-philosophical hypotheses. For more information, go here.

Published in 2005 - Third Part

Another important book published in 2005 is Richard Bett's new translation of Sextus Empiricus' Against the Logicians (Adversus Dogmaticos I-II). The only previous complete English version of Sextus' Against the Logicians is Bury's translation in the Loeb Classical Library, which appeared in 1935. Given that Bury's English versions of Sextus' works are sometimes inaccurate or even misleading and often sound dated, Bett's translation is a most welcome addition to the literature on Pyrrhonism. I also highly recommend the Bett's introduction, in which he claims that in the Adversus Dogmaticos it is possible to detect traces of a variety of Pyrrhonism earlier than Sextus' own variety. If you want more information about this book, click here.

Published in 2005 - Second Part

Another book published in 2005 that must be mentioned is the collective volume O Ceticismo e a possibilidade da Filosofia (Ijuí: Unijuí), edited by Waldomiro Silva Filho. The book contains essays by Alves Eva, Bolzani Filho, Junqueira Smith, and Porchat Pereira, among others. The subjects discussed include ancient Pyrrhonism, Hume, Kant, and Davidson. Click here to find more information. (I'm grateful to Roberto Bolzani for sending me a copy of this book.)

Published in 2005 - First Part

In 2005, Emidio Spinelli published his Questioni Scettiche: Letture introduttive al pirronismo antico (Roma: Lithos), which brings together six of his essays on Pyrrhonism published between 1999 and 2005 in journals and collective volumes. As the subtitle indicates, the essays are above all intended as an introduction to the Pyrrhonian philosophy. For more information, click here.

Also in 2005, Brigitte Pérez-Jean published her Dogmatisme et scepticisme: L’héraclitisme d’Énésidème (Lille: Septentrion). As I said in a previous post, I haven't read this book yet, but I assume that it will be interesting to compare Pérez-Jean's view with that defended in Roberto Polito's The Sceptical Road. You'll find more info here. (Note that, although the site says that the book appeared in 2006, my copy says that it was published in 2005).

Published in 2004 - Second and Final Part

I haven't had enough time to work on the list of books published in the past five years. As I now have a couple of minutes, I'll finish with those published in 2004.

- W. Sinnott-Armstrong (ed.), Pyrrhonian Skepticism. New York: Oxford University Press.

This book has its origin in a conference in honor of Robert Fogelin held at Darmouth College. The contributions examine the differences between ancient Pyrrhonism and Fogelin's neo-Pyrrhonism, his interpretation of the skeptical positions of certain modern and contemporary philosophers, and his own variety of Pyrrhonism. Among the contributors are Gisela Striker, Roy Sorensen, Michael Williams, Barry Stroud, Ernest Sosa, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, and Fogelin himself. For more information, click here.

- J. R. Maia Neto, R. Popkin (eds.), Skepticism in Renaissance and Post-Renaissance Thought: New Interpretations. Amherst: Humanity Books.

The essays assess Richard Popkin's view of the impact of ancient skepticism upon modern philosophy. Some of the contributors are José Maia Neto, Gianni Paganini, Luciano Floridi, and John Christian Laursen. For more information, take a look at here.

Published in 2004 - First Part

I begin the list of the books published in 2004 with Roberto Polito's The Sceptical Road: Aenesidemus' appropriation of Heraclitus (Leiden: Brill).

Polito (University of Cambridge) deals with one of the most difficult puzzles of ancient Pyrrhonism, namely the so-called Heracliteanism of Aenesidemus - the originator of the later Pyrrhonian tradition in the first century BC. He tries to show that Aenesidemus did not endorse Heraclitean doctrines but rather intended to offer an exegesis of Heraclitus' thought. Thus, when Aenesidemus said that Pyrrhonism is a road towards Heracliteanism, what he was trying to say was that Pyrrhonism is a tool for understanding the philosophy of Heraclitus. As far as I know, this is the first book in English which is entirely devoted to Aenesidemus' relation to Heraclitus. For information about this work, go here.

It seems to me that these days there is a revived interest in the Aenesideman variety of Pyrrhonism. In a future post, I'll refer to Brigitte Pérez's book on Aenesidemus, which I haven't had to time to read yet. In this regard, it is also worth mentioning that Polito is working on an edition of the fragments of Aenesidemus, although I don't know when he's planning to finish this book.

Published in 2003 - Final Part

The last book published in 2003 which I'd like to mention is Hansueli Flückiger's Die Herausforderung der philosophischen Skepsis: Untersuchungen zur Aktualität des Pyrrhonismus (Wien: Passagen Verlag).

Flückiger (Privatdozent at Universität Freiburg, Switzerland) examines the challenge that Pyrrhonian skepticism still poses nowadays by analyzing the neo-Pyrrhonism of Odo Marquard and the positions of Richard Rorty and Hans Albert. For more information, take a look at here.

Published in 2003 - Second Part

Another key book published in 2003 is Richard Popkin's The History of Scepticism from Savonarola to Bayle (New York: Oxford University Press), in which he defended the thesis according to which the rediscovery of ancient skepticism played a crucial role in the formation of early modern philosophy.

As I noted in a previous post, this edition of The History of Scepticism was fully revised and considerably expanded. Popkin, who died in 2005, could include in this last edition of his pioneering book discussions of quite a few modern figures whose positions were not examined in the previous editions. He also took into account the specialist literature published since the 1979 edition. You'll find more information about the book here.

Published in 2003 - First Part

I've just realized that the three books I mentioned in my previous post all have to do with Sextus. I will now refer to a book that will interest those concerned with contemporary skepticism:

Steven Luper (ed.), The Skeptics: Contemporary Essays. Aldershot: Ashgate.

I highly recommend this book. In his introduction, Luper offers a clear and useful taxonomy both of types of skepticism and of types of anti-skeptical responses. The volume includes fine essays by Gilbert Harman, Peter Klein, Ernest Sosa, Robert Fogelin, Fred Dretske, and Marie McGinn, among others. It also reprints Hilary Putnam's famous "Brains in a Vat", and David Lewis' "Elusive Knowledge". Information about the book is found here.

Published in 2002

Among the books published in 2002, three must be mentioned:

1. Sextus Empiricus, Contre les professeurs. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

The translation is by Catherine Dalimier, Daniel Delattre, Joëlle Delattre, and Brigitte Pérez. The introduction and the glossary are by Pierre Pellegrin. This book is important particularly because it is the first complete French version of Sextus' Adversus Mathematicos. It is also worth mentioning that the book includes the Greek text. For information, see here.

2. Luciano Floridi, Sextus Empiricus: The Transmission and Recovery of Pyrrhonism. New York: Oxford University Press.

Floridi offers an exhaustive and rigorous examination of the transmission of Sextus' extant writings from late antiquity until modern times. Information about the book is found here.

3. Alan Bailey, Sextus Empiricus and Pyrrhonean Scepticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

One of the interesting aspects of Bailey's book is that it shows that the skeptical stance found in Sextus' works has a great deal to contribute to present-day epistemological discussions. Information about this work is found here.

Books published in the past five years

I think it might be useful to devote some posts to providing information about important books on skepticism that were published in the past five years, from 2002 to 2006. I will try to make the list as exhaustive as possible and will consider one year at a time.

The List

I think the list is quite complete now, particularly because it includes scholars from different countries: Brazil, Canada, England, France, Iceland, Italy, and the US. Unfortunately, there are important specialists in Pyrrhonian and Academic skepticism such as Fernanda Decleva Caizzi and Anna Maria Ioppolo who, as far as I know, don't have webpages.