The Skepticism of Francisco Sánchez

On Tuesday, February 9, at 7:30 pm ET, Marcelo Broitman, Adjunct Professor of Spanish at Yeshiva University, will discuss his book Francisco Sánchez y el redescubrimiento de la duda en el Renacimiento. Tracing philosophical skepticism from its origins in Ancient Greece until its recovery in the Renaissance, the book focuses on the work of Francisco Sánchez, a Spanish-Portuguese philosopher and physician of Jewish ancestry. Ronnie Perelis, Isaac Abraham, and Jelena Alcalay will moderate the discussion. You must register here to receive the Zoom link.

Skepticism Lecture Series

As some of you might know, after organizing a conference on Pyrrhonism in Buenos Aires in 2008, it seemed to me it'd be a good idea to create some sort of group that would bring together scholars from around the world working on skepticism from either a historical or a systematic perspective. It was called the International Society for the Study of Skepticism. Its main aim was to organize conferences every two or three years, but although a couple of conferences were organized by others in Brazil in the following years, the original idea wasn't feasible due to lack of resources. Instead of doing that, it seemed more realistic to launch a journal. Luckily, Brill accepted the proposal in 2010 and the International Journal for the Study of Skepticism has already published ten volumes. Now, during the initial months of the pandemic, several online colloquia and lectures series were organized with considerable success by different groups and institutions, which made me think that something similar could be done by those interested in skepticism. For various reasons, I couldn't undertake the project last year, and at this point it might be worth giving it a try. The tentative idea is to have the typical 90-minute-talk + Q&A every two weeks and to make sure to have as many groups and approaches as possible represented. I'd be grateful if those interested in participating either as speakers and/or as attendees sent me an email to diegomachuca at gmail dot com or to diegomachuca at conicet dot gov dot ar.

Porchat and Skepticism

The latest issue of the Brazilian journal Discurso is a special issue devoted to the thought of Oswaldo Porchat Pereira: “Ceticismo, Filosofia e História da Filosofia: Homenagem a Oswaldo Porchat.” At least eight of the articles deal with skepticism. The entire issue can be accessed for free here.

Workshop on Mendelssohn’s Commentary on Qohelet

On February, 1-2, the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies (Hamburg) will host the online workshop “Scepticism in Mendelssohn’s Commentary on Qohelet and His Other Hebrew Writings.” For complete information, click here.

Decleva Caizzi's Pirroniana

In 1981, Fernanda Decleva Caizzi published Pirrone: Testimonianze (Napoli: Bibliopolis), which contains the testimonia on Pyrrho in Greek and Latin together with an Italian translation and an extensive commentary. Last year, a revised version was published under the title Pirroniana (Milano: LED). This new edition contains in addition an English translation of the textual fragments by Mauro Bonazzi and David Sedley, and three papers on Pyrrhonian skepticism by Decleva Caizzi published in 1980, 1992, and 1996. The good news is that the entire book can be legally downloaded for free here.

Pyrrhonism in On Certainty

The latest issue of the Italian journal Elenchos (41/2, 2020) contains Roger Eichorn's “The Elusive Third Way: The Pyrrhonian Illumination in Wittgenstein’s On Certainty.” It can be found here.

Agnosticism

There's a new collective volume on religious agnosticism: Francis Fallon and Gavin Hyman (eds.), Agnosticism: Explorations in Philosophy and Religious Thought (OUP, 2020). More information here.

Summer School at Maimonides Centre

There's a Call for Applications for the summer school “Facets of Early Modern Scepticism,” which will take place at the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies (Hamburg University) on July 18-23, 2021. For complete information, go here.

Jewish Andalusian Freethinking

On December 1st, Sarah Stroumsa (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) will give the online lecture “The Voice of Written Texts and the Myth of Jewish Andalusian Freethinking” as part of the Maimonides Lectures on Scepticism. For more information, go here.

10th Anniversary Issue of IJSS

The latest issue of the International Journal for the Study of Skepticism is a double special issue that celebrates the 10th anniversary of the journal. It combines papers dealing with historical figures—Gorgias, Plato, Sextus Empiricus, and Isabelle de Charrière—with papers offering systematic discussions of issues in epistemology, ethics, and the philosophy of religion. It can be found here.

Moore against the Skeptic

A couple of weeks ago, Jonathan Birch published the short, accessible piece “G. E. Moore’s hands vs. Radical Scepticism” on the blog of The London School of Economics and Political Science. You can find it here.

Annual Lecture at MCAS

On October 27th, Gianni Paganini (Università del Piemonte Orientale) will give, via zoom, the annual lecture at the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies (Universität Hamburg). He will talk about “Facts, Fictions, and Hypotheses: Hume’s Scepticism and Newton’s Method in the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion”. For more information, go here.

Ethics and Mathematics

Those interested in anti-realist forms of skepticism in ethics and mathematics might want to take a look at Justin Clarke-Doane's recent book, Morality and Mathematics (OUP, 2020). Here's the abstract:

To what extent are the subjects of our thoughts and talk real? This is the question of realism. In this book, Justin Clarke-Doane explores arguments for and against moral realism and mathematical realism, how they interact, and what they can tell us about areas of philosophical interest more generally. He argues that, contrary to widespread belief, our mathematical beliefs have no better claim to being self-evident or provable than our moral beliefs. Nor do our mathematical beliefs have better claim to being empirically justified than our moral beliefs. It is also incorrect that reflection on the "genealogy" of our moral beliefs establishes a lack of parity between the cases. In general, if one is a moral antirealist on the basis of epistemological considerations, then one ought to be a mathematical antirealist as well. And, yet, Clarke-Doane shows that moral realism and mathematical realism do not stand or fall together -- and for a surprising reason. Moral questions, insofar as they are practical, are objective in a sense that mathematical questions are not, and the sense in which they are objective can only be explained by assuming practical anti-realism. One upshot of the discussion is that the concepts of realism and objectivity, which are widely identified, are actually in tension. Another is that the objective questions in the neighborhood of factual areas like logic, modality, grounding, and nature are practical questions too. Practical philosophy should, therefore, take center stage.

Evolution in Morality and Theological Ethics

The latest issue of the European Journal for Philosophy of Religion includes a section devoted to “Evolutionary Research on Morality and Theological Ethics.” The issue also contains a couple of papers on religious agnosticism.