Long on Ancient Skepticism

Although some of you probably know about this, I'd like to tell you that, in 2006, OUP published A. A. Long's From Epicurus to Epictetus: Studies in Hellenistic and Roman philosophy. The book collects seventeen papers Long published in journals and collective volumes and one new essay. The second part of the volume consists of five fine papers on ancient skepticism:

"Aristotle and the History of Greek Scepticism".
"Timon of Phlius: Pyrrhonist and Satirist".
"Arcesilaus in his Hime and Place".

"Scepticism about Gods".

"Astrology: Arguments pro and contra".

For information, click here.

Dissertation Defense

Stéphane Marchand will defend his PhD dissertation ("Identité philosophique et évolution historique du pyrrhonisme ancien") on December 5, at 2 pm, at the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne Campus Croix-Rouge, salle du conseil de l'UFR de Lettres.

The members of the examining committee will be:

Anne-Gabrièle Wersinger (Reims)
Jonathan Barnes (Paris IV)
Jean-François Balaudé (Paris X-Nanterre)

Carlos Lévy (Paris IV)

Emidio Spinelli (Rome, La Sapienza)

Patrick Wotling (Reims)

Conference

I've just come across this information: on November 13-14, a conference entitled "Vivre" will take place at the Université de Paris X-Nanterre (Building K). On the 13th, there will be two talks on ancient Pyrrhonism:

14h45-15h45: Baptiste Bondu: "Le scepticisme de Sextus Empiricus ou la distinction de la vie et de la philosophie"

17h15-18h15: Stéphane Marchand: "Vivre le Pyrrhonisme?"

A description of the nature and aim of the conference as well as the program can be found here. You can also find Marchand's paper here.

Talk on Pyrrhonism and Medicine

Tomorrow, at the Faculty of Classics of the University of Cambridge, James Allen (Pittsburgh) will deliver a paper entitled "Sceptical affinities: Pyrrhonism and the medical schools". This will take place in room 1.04 at 1.00-2.00 pm. The talk forms part of the lunchtime seminar series on first-century BC Greco-Roman philosophy.

NYU Conference on Skepticism

On the NYU Philosophy Department webpage, you can now find Leiter's, Sosa's, Vogel's, and Paganini's papers. There is, however, a little problem: to read the papers, you need a password. This is certainly strange, since the conference is an open event, unlike the conference on skepticism the NYU held in Florence last june.

New Association

In order to bring together scholars doing research on skepticism, a new international association is being created. The provisional webpage can be found here. If you would like to become a member, you can contact me by e-mail.

Book Symposium

The latest issue of Philosophy and Phenomenological Research features a book symposium about Walter Sinnott-Armstrong's Moral Skepticisms. The authors are Sinnott-Armstrong, Peter Railton, Mark Timmons, and David Copp.

Paper on Sextus

Stéphane Marchand has let me know about this paper published last year:

Anne Gabrièle Wersinger, "La philosophie entre Logique et Musique. Sextus Empiricus et la diaphônia" (Discussion de quelques arguments de Jonathan Barnes), Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 56 (2007): 499-519.

I haven't had the time to read this article yet, so I have no opinion about its quality. You can find it here.

NYU Skepticism Conference

As you may remember, in May I mentioned that, on November 8-9, there would be a another conference on skepticism organized by the NYU Department of Philosophy. Gianni Paganini has just let me know that the program is now complete. You can find it by clicking here. If you can, you should try to attend, since to all appearances it will be a great conference. The speakers and commentators include, among others, Paganini, Ernest Sosa, Robert Fogelin, Brian Leiter, Barry Stroud, and Catherine Wilson.

Update October 18: I forgot to say that all the papers will be posted here as they become available. So far you can find Leiter's paper on Nietzsche.

Webpage on Ancient Philosophy

Stéphane Marchand and Olivier Renaut have created Zétesis, an excellent webpage devoted to ancient philosophy, and hence also to ancient skepticism. It is the site of the "Association de doctorants et de jeunes chercheurs en philosophie ancienne et en sciences de l'antiquité".

New Blog

I just want to let you know about this new blog called "Epistemology@Edinburgh", which you can find here. One of the subjects that will be dealt with therein is skepticism.

Ancient Skepticism and the Self

The book Ancient Philosophy of the Self (Springer, 2008), edited by Pauliina Remes and Juha Sihvola, features Richard Bett's "What Kind of Self Can a Greek Sceptic Have?". The online version of all the papers can be found here. I suppose that some of you may have access through your university network.

SSS Meeting

The program for the Society for Skeptical Studies meeting at the 2008 Eastern Division meeting of the APA is already available (go here). The speakers will be Otávio Bueno, Brian Ribeiro, and Joel Buenting.

ANPOF Congress

On October 6-10 will take place the “XIII Encontro Nacional de Filosofia” organized by the Associação Nacional de Pós-graduação em Filosofia (ANPOF) of Brazil. There will be many talks on skepticism, both from a historical and from a systematic perspective. You can find out about the talks in the program, which can be found here.