Argumentation in Sextus Empiricus

For what it's worth, this paper of mine is now out in print: “Pyrrhonian Argumentation: Therapy, Dialectic, and Inquiry,” Apeiron 52 (2019): 199-221. Here's the abstract: 

The Pyrrhonist’s argumentative practice is characterized by at least four features. First, he makes a therapeutic use of arguments: he employs arguments that differ in their persuasiveness in order to cure his dogmatic patients of the distinct degrees of conceit and rashness that afflict them. Secondly, his arguments are for the most part dialectical: when offering an argument to oppose it to another argument advanced by a given dogmatist, he accepts in propria persona neither the truth of its premises and conclusion nor the validity of its logical form. Thirdly, he avails himself of arguments in his own open-minded inquiry into the truth about a wide range of topics. Fourthly, Pyrrhonian argumentation is oppositional inasmuch as it typically works by producing oppositions among arguments that appear to the Pyrrhonist to be equipollent. In this article, I focus on the first three features with the aim of both shedding some light on them and determining whether they are in tension or coherently relate to each other.

Skepticism and Anxiety

You might be interested in Sylvia Giocanti’s (Université de Toulouse) new book: Scepticisme et Inquiétude (Hermann, 2019). Below is the description in French, but more information can be found here. I think that, in the present context, ‘anxiety’ is probably a good translation of the French ‘inquiétude’.

Le philosophe sceptique serait-il voué à l’inquiétude? Il est admis que le sceptique antique jouit de la tranquillité de l’âme non pas en dépit du doute mais grâce à lui. Est-on fondé à soutenir que l’âme du sceptique moderne, exilée de Dieu, est tourmentée par le doute? Les Essais de Montaigne, modèle anthropologique, éthique et esthétique du scepticisme moderne, se présentent au contraire comme des pérégrinations enjouées, ou au moins consolatrices qui, se défiant de toute croyance, sont animées par un « souci de soi » non angoissé. Relayée par des scepticismes partiels (Fontenelle, Nietzsche, Cl. Rosset, M. Conche, J.-F. Billeter, H. Blumenberg), la présente étude analyse les modalités sceptiques d’une quête sereine de la jouissance du monde, ainsi que leurs points de rupture avec les conceptions métaphysique (Augustin, Heidegger), pessimiste (Pascal, Leopardi) et foucaldienne de la subjectivité.

Skepticism and Social Epistemology

A workshop entitled “Skepticism and Social Epistemology” will take place at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Haifa on Monday, April ‎‎8, 2019.

Although skepticism is a central theme in epistemology, skepticism is rarely dealt with in ‎social epistemology. A rarely challenged assumption in the epistemology of testimony is ‎that subjects normally acquire knowledge and justified belief from the testimony of ‎others. However, even if we can gain knowledge from non-testimonial sources, such as ‎perception and inference, there might be special reasons why we cannot get knowledge or ‎justified belief from testimony. Our increasing reliance on technologically and ‎algorithmically mediated testimonies and phenomena such as fake news may also cast ‎doubts on our possibility of getting testimonial knowledge in general or specific cases. ‎The workshop talks address these issues. 

The speakers will be Arnon Keren, Aviv Barnoy, Boaz Miller, Bryan Frances, Maya Roman, Ori Freiman, and Sandy Goldberg. 

Attendance is is free of charge, but prior registration is required. You may see the program and register at http://philevents.org/event/show/71482 or you can register by sending an email to boaz.m@zefat.ac.il.

Issue 9.1 of IJSS

Issue 9.1 of the International Journal for the Study of Skepticism has just been published. It contains articles by Ruth Weintraub, Ali Hossein Khani, Kevin McCain, and Nenad Popovic, as well as book reviews by Scott Aikin, Annalisa Coliva, Cameron Boult, and Gerhard Schurz. It can be accessed here.

Ancient Skepticism Workshop in Paris

Stéphane Marchand has organized a one-day workshop on ancient skepticism (“Actualités du scepticisme ancien”) to be held on March 18, from 14h to 18h, at the Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de la Sorbonne (Salle de formation), 17, rue de la Sorbonne, Paris. If you want to attend, you should register by sending an email to philo-recherche@univ-paris1.fr. Here's the program:

Richard Bett (Johns Hopkins University): “The Modes in Sextus: Theory and Practice”.

Lorenzo Corti (Université de Lorraine): “Scepticisme, croyance et doute chez les Pyrrhoniens”.

Conference “Skeptical Anthropology”

The conference “Anthropologie sceptique et modernité” will take place at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon on March 13-15. For complete information, click here.

Pyrrhonism Bibliography

My annotated bibliography on Pyrrhonism in Oxford Bibliographies in Philosophy, originally published in 2013, has just been updated.

Call for Papers

There's a call for papers on contemporary discussions of external world skepticism for Belgrade Philosophical Annual. For complete information, go here.

Call for Fellowship Applications

The Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies (MCAS) at Universität Hamburg invites early career researchers to apply for its junior fellowship programme for the academic year 2019–2020. For complete information about the topic, eligibility, and application procedure, click here.

Brill Studies in Skepticim, Vol. 2

The second volume of Brill Studies in Skepticism is now out:

Kevin McCain & Ted Poston (eds.), The Mystery of Skepticism: New Explorations (Brill, 2019).

Brill Studies in Skepticim, Vol. 1

The first volume of Brill Studies in Skepticism has just been published:

Orazio Cappello, The School of Doubt: Skepticism, History and Politics in Cicero's Academica (Brill, 2019).

For more information, go here.

Moral Abolitionism

Due to personal issues, I haven't been able to post for a while. I resume posting with information about a new volume on moral abolitionism edited by Richard Garner and Richard Joyce: The End of Morality: Taking Moral Abolitionism Seriously (Routledge, 2019). For more on this volume, click here.

Third Yearbook of the MCAS

The 2018 Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies has just been published. The articles and reports can be found here.

Issue 8.4 of IJSS

Issue 8.4 of the International Journal for the Study of Skepticism  is now out. It features a symposium on Bart Streumer's Unbelievable Errors (OUP, 2017) -- with contributions by Frank Jackson, Philip Stratton-Lake, Mark Schroeder, and Streumer -- and book reviews by Stéphane Marchand and Peter Fosl. It can be accessed here.