First Issue Skepticism Journal

I'm pleased to announce that the first issue of the International Journal for the Study of Skepticism, edited by Duncan Pritchard and myself with the support of Baron Reed as reviews editor, is now out. You can access it by clicking here. Since it is the first issue, the articles can be downloaded for free.

Pyrrhonism and Ordinary Language

On May 19th, there will be a conference on ancient philosophy and ordinary language at the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium). Emidio Spinelli (Rome) will give the talk, "Contre la rhétorique: langage pyrrhonien et 'usage commun de la vie' selon Sextus Empiricus." For more information, go here.

Sinnott-Armstrong's Neo-Pyrrhonism

Folke Tersman (Uppsala University) recently published "Contrasts and Demons: On Sinnott-Armstrong’s Moderate Pyrrhonian Scepticism," in L. Haaparanta (ed.), Rearticulations of Reason. Recent Currents. Acta Philosophica Fennica 88 (2010): 243-60. As far as I know, there's no online version of this journal.

Journal Episteme

I here reproduce information already posted on a couple of other blogs:

THE JOURNAL EPISTEME: A MOVE AND REINCARNATION (by Alvin Goldman):

The journal EPISTEME announces an impending move and transformation. With the first issue of 2012 we begin publication with Cambridge University Press and expand our scope from social epistemology specifically to all of epistemology. Our new title will be: Episteme, A Journal of Individual and Social Epistemology. EPISTEME has published since 2004 with Edinburgh University Press. With Cambridge we shall publish four issues per year, approximately 500 pages per volume. Cambridge will include EPISTEME in a bundle of journals to which 1,500 institutions already subscribe.

Scope and Mission Statement. EPISTEME is a general journal of epistemology in the analytic tradition that invites both informal and formal approaches. Among its primary “traditional” topics are knowledge, justification, evidence, reasons, rationality, skepticism, truth, probability, epistemic norms and values, and methodology. The journal devotes special attention to topics in social epistemology, including testimony, trust, disagreement, relativism, diversity and expertise, collective judgment, and the epistemic assessment of social institutions (e.g., science, law, democracy, and the media). The journal welcomes interdisciplinary approaches to epistemology that borrow methods from allied disciplines such as experimental psychology, linguistics, economics, game theory, evolutionary theory, and computer simulation studies. We do not publish purely historical work or case studies.

Editorial Team

Editor

Alvin Goldman (Rutgers)

Associate Editors

Jessica Brown (St. Andrews)

Igor Douven (Groningen)

Don Fallis (Arizona)

Branden Fitelson (Rutgers)

Jennifer Lackey (Northwestern)

Christian List (London School of Economics)

Jack Lyons (Arkansas)

Matthew McGrath (Missouri)

Jonathan Schaffer (Rutgers)

Frederick Schmitt (Indiana)

Jonathan Weinberg (Arizona)

Michael Weisberg (University of Pennsylvania)

The first issue of 2012, guest-edited by Jennifer Lackey, will include the following contents:

(1) A symposium on pragmatic encroachment, with papers by Jessica Brown, Jeremy Fantl and Matthew McGrath, and Jason Stanley;

(2) A paper on the epistemic case for multiple-vote majority rule, by Richard Bradley and Christopher Thompson; and

(3) A critical notice of Sanford Goldberg's Relying on Others, by Mikkel Gerken.

Previous Contributors. In our eight years of publication with Edinburgh (when we specialized in social epistemology exclusively), our pages have featured work by the following authors, among others: Jonathan Adler, Elizabeth Anderson, Michael Bergmann, Paul Boghossian, Albert Casullo, David Christensen, Earl Conee, Igor Douven, David Estlund, Richard Feldman, Branden Fitelson, Richard Foley, Miranda Fricker, Margaret Gilbert, Sanford Goldberg, John Greco, Susan Haack, Christopher Hookway, Philip Kitcher, Hilary Kornblith, Jennifer Lackey, Larry Laudan, Peter Lipton, Christian List, Helen Longino, Ram Neta, Philip Pettit, Nicholas Rescher, Gideon Rosen, Sherrilyn Roush, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Michael Strevens, Jonathan Weinberg, Roger White, Michael Williams, and Linda Zagzebski.

The journal welcomes submissions for publication in 2012 and thereafter. Manuscripts should be directed to: episteme@philosophy.rutgers.edu. Manuscripts should be anonymized, and should be accompanied by a separate file containing an abstract, author identification (including institution), and contact information.

Moore, Wittgenstein, and Skepticism

Annalisa Coliva (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) recently published her Moore and Wittgenstein: Scepticism, Certainty and Common Sense (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). For more information, go here. This is actually the revised and expanded version of a book originally published in Italian in 2003. About a month ago, a review of the book appeared in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

Incidentally, there is a collective volume dealing with Wittgenstein published by the same press in 2010: Nuno Venturinha (ed.), Wittgenstein after His Nachlass. The book's web page can be found here and recent reviews can be read here and here.

New Issue of Sképsis

The latest issue of the Brazilian journal Sképsis is available online here. As you already know, the papers can be downloaded for free.

Truth and Skepticism

Robert Almeder recently published Truth and Skepticism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010), where he defends a pragmatist epistemological stance. More information can be found here.

Studia Philosophica

I've just discovered that the 2009 issue of Studia Philosophica (published by La Société Suisse de Philosophie) was devoted to the subject "forms of irrationality". There is one paper which directly deals with skepticism, namely, Yves Bossart's "Sind pyrrhonische Skeptiker irrational? Radikale Skepsis und die Grenzen der Rationalität". (Unfortunately, my German is very poor, but I'll spend some time trying to figure out what the author says because I wrote a paper on this specific subject.) The whole issue can be accessed for free here.

SSS 2011 Meeting

Here is the program for the session of the Society for Skeptical Studies at the Pacific Division meeting of the APA:

Saturday, April 23rd, at 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Chair: Sven Bernecker (University of California, Irvine)

Renata Zieminska (Uniwersytet Szczeciński): “Inconsistency of Pyrrhonian Skepticism.”

Heather Battaly (California State University, Fullerton): “Sosa’s Reflective Knowledge: How Damaging Is Epistemic Circularity?”

Mini-Course on Ancient Skepticism

Those living in Brazil will be interested in the following information:

MINI-CURSO: "O CETICISMO ANTIGO: UMA ABORDAGEM INTRODUTÓRIA," ministrado pelo Prof. DR. ROBERTO BOLZANI (USP)

Location:

Programa de Pós Graduação em Filosofia da UFBA, Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Estrada de São Lázaro, nº 197 - Federação, CEP: 40210-730. Salvador, Brazil

Objetivo:

Pretende-se apresentar as principais características e conceitos do chamado Ceticismo Pirrônico grego, que floresceu e se desenvolveu entre os séculos IV a. C. e III d. C. Desde Pirro de Elis, filósofo sobre o qual pouco se sabe, até o médico Sexto Empírico, que provavelmente viveu em Alexandria na era cristã, passando por pensadores como Enesidemo e Agripa, essa corrente filosófica elaborou uma forma de pensamento dotada de coerência e consistência interna. Nas três aulas, tratar-se-á de comentar como se pode ver essa filosofia como um todo sistemático, abordando as noções fundamentais que a definiram.

Conteúdo:

1. Primeira aula (18/04, 11:00 ÀS 12:30h): "A procura da verdade, o conflito filosófico e a suspensão de juízo."

2. Segunda aula (19/04, 11:00 ÀS 12:30h): "O critério fenomênico de conduta."

3. Terceira aula (20/04, 11:00 ÀS 12:30h): "Concepção empírico-experimental de técnica fenomênica."

As Inscrições serão realizadas na na Secretaria da Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas da UFBA.

Endereço:

Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas da UFBA.

Estrada de São Lázaro, 197 - Federação

Salvador - Bahia - 40210-730

Ancient Empiricism and Early Modern Medicine

Pete White has called my attention to a paper that might be of interest to those working on skepticism and the ancient empirical school of medicine:

Gianna Pomata, "A Word of the Empirics: The Ancient Concept of Observation and its Recovery in Early Modern Medicine," Annals of Science 68. The article can be found here.

US in September

Probably in September, I'll spend two weeks at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington with a research fellowship. If possible, I'll try to spend one more week in the US and try to attend some talks/conferences/workshops in the area. So if any reader from the US knows of any event on skepticism in ancient philosophy, epistemology, or metaethics, please let me know. Thanks.

Conference on Hume and Religious Skepticism

Sébastien Charles and Noémie Verhoef (Sherbrooke) have organized the conference "Athéisme, déisme et scepticisme au siècle des Lumières: les Dialogues sur la religion naturelle de Hume," which will take place at the Université de Sherbrooke on May 9-11. Complete information can be found here.

Berkeley and Skepticism

The latest issue of the British Journal for the History of Philosophy features Jonathan Hill's "Berkeley's Missing Argument: The Sceptical Attack on Intentionality". The paper can be found here.