Conference - Day 2

The second day of the conference was very useful to me because Emidio Spinelli and I presented papers on Sextan Pyrrhonism and we had the opportunity to discuss them with other participants. So far my stay in Rome has been rewarding.

Roman Conference - Day 1

Yesterday we had the first day of the conference "Logos, episteme, praxis", which is taking place at the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza". We heard six papers. Regarding skepticism, the last talk by Riccardo Chiaradonna gave us the opportunity to discuss some issues related to the problem of the criterion in Galen and Sextus. I'm writing this now because I'm still jet-lagged, but I hope I won't stay awake for the third night in a row.

Review

In a post last April, I referred to the publication of Wilfried Kühn's Quel savoir après le scepticisme: Plotin et ses prédécesseurs sur la connaissance de soi (Vrin, 2009). A review of this book has just appeared in Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

Trip

On Wednesday, I'm leaving for Italy and then England, so I'm not sure how often I'll post on the blog. I'll present four papers on subjects I've been working on, which will give me to the opportunity to discuss with specialists and see if my papers stand up to scrutiny.

Skepticism in the Modern Age

Brill has finally published Skepticism in the Modern Age: Building on the Work of Richard Popkin, edited by José Maia Neto, Chris Laursen, and Gianni Paganini. Information about the book can be found here.

Roman Conference

On October 9-10, the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" will hold the conference "Logos, episteme, praxis". The venue is Villa Mirafiori, Via Carlo Fea 2 - Roma, Biblioteca di Lingue. Below I copy the whole program (in Italian). Two papers will deal with ancient Pyrrhonism, and a third (on Galen) will probably touch on skepticism.

Venerdì 9 ottobre

9.00 Apertura dei lavori

9.30 Francesco Aronadio, "Il de virtute pseudoplatonico: distinguere le buone e le cattive nature"

10.15 Diana Quarantotto, "Aristotele: l'unità della scienza della natura"

11.00 Break

11.15 Thomas Bénatouïl, "Logos et praxis chez Dicéarque"

16.00 Gabriele Cornelli, "Comunità e discorsi: i logoi di Pitagora fra Dicearco e Apollonio di Tiana"

16.45 Francesco Verde, "Il tempo nella fisica di Stratone di Lampsaco"

17.30 Break

17.45 Riccardo Chiaradonna, "Epistemologia e medicina: La dottrina del criterio in Galeno"

Sabato 10 ottobre

9.30 Mauro Bonazzi, "Il platonismo politico di Plutarco"

10.15 Diego Machuca, "Pyrrhonian Relativism"

11.00 Break

11.15 Emidio Spinelli, "Contro l´arte del bel parlare: filosofia e retorica in Sesto Empirico"

12.00 Discussione finale e chiusura dei lavori

Disagreement

David Christensen (Brown) has just published "Disagreement as Evidence: The Epistemology of Controversy", Philosophy Compass 4/4: 756-767 (click here to access the issue). This paper may be of interest to those working on contemporary skepticism or on Pyrrhonism. I do research on Pyrrhonian skepticism and have learned a lot from contemporary discussions of the epistemic significance of disagreement.

Talks in Mexico City

On September 21, 23, and 25, Michael Williams (Johns Hopkins University) will give three talks at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico. He will talk about Pyrrhonism and some contemporary answers to this form of skepticism, including his own.

New Book

A couple of months ago, W. Sinnott-Armstrong (Dartmouth College) published Morality Without God (OUP). For information, click here. Stéphane Marchand let me know that there's an interview about the book on Philosophy Bites, but the link doesn't seem to work at the moment.

Humean Skepticism

Robert Fogelin's Hume's Skeptical Crisis: A Textual Study (OUP) has just been published. For information, go here.

Series of Talks

Update: I've just been told that the talks Luca Castagnoli was going to give in Mexico have been cancelled.

Modern Skepticism

Last year, Plínio Junqueira Smith (Universidade Federal de São Paulo) published “La Critique de la raison pure face aux scepticismes cartésien, baylien et humien”, in Dialogue 47: 463-500. Those with access can read the paper by clicking here.

A Couple of Books

Duncan Pritchard (University of Edinburgh) has just co-edited two volumes on topics that might be of interest to those working on contemporary skepticism:

Epistemic Value, edited with A. Haddock & A. Millar (OUP, 2009).

Williamson on Knowledge, edited with P. Greenough (OUP, 2009).

Papers on Ancient Skepticism

Those familiar with the scholarship on ancient skepticism might be interested to know that, between last year and this year, Emidio Spinelli has published a few papers on the subject. Here is the list:

"Una vita disincantata: bios e philosophia nello scetticismo antico", and "A volte ritornano, perfino i pirroniani", both in Il bios dei filosofi: dialogo a più voci sul tipo di vita preferibile, edited by F. De Luise, Università degli Studi di Trento: Trento, 2009.

"Sesto Empirico contro i musici: contesto e senso di una polemica antica", in Filosofia e musica, edited by C. Tatasciore, Bruno Mondadori: Milano, 2008.

"L'attacco di Sesto Empirico alle technai: polemica antipaideutica e genuino pirronismo", in Anthropine sophia. Studi di filologia e storiografia filosofica in memoria di Gabriele Giannantoni, edited by F. Alesse, F. Aronadio, C. Dalfino, L. Simeoni, and Spinelli, Bibliopolis: Napoli, 2008.

“Sextus Empiricus, l’expérience sceptique et l’horizon de l’éthique”, in Cahiers Philosophiques 115 (October).