Essays on Skepticism

by Brueckner, Anthony

• ISBN13: 9780199585861
• ISBN10: 0199585865
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-10-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The problem of skepticism about knowledge of the external world has been the centrepiece of epistemology since Descartes. In the last 25 years, there has been a keen focus of interest on the problem, with a number of new insights by the best contemporary epistemologists and philosophers of mind. Anthony Brueckner is recognized as one of the leading contemporary investigators of the problem of skepticism. Essays on Skepticismcollects Brueckner's most important work in this area, providing a connected and comprehensive guide to the complex state of play on this intensively studied area of philosophy. The guiding questions of this volume are: Can we have knowledge of the external world of things outside our minds? Can we have knowledge of the internal world of our own contentful mental states? The work divides into four sections: I. Transcendental Arguments against Skepticism; II. Semantic Answers to Skepticism; III. Self-knowledge; IV. Skepticism and Epistemic Closure.

Author Biography

Anthony Brueckner is Professor of Philosophy at University of California, Santa Barbara. He has written extensively in epistemology over the past 25 years. He has also written in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, Kant, personal identity, free will, and the metaphysics of death.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Transcendental Arguments against Skepticism

Transcendental Arguments I

Transcendental Arguments II

The Anti-Skeptical Strategy of the Refutation of Idealism

Modest Transcendental Arguments

Transcendental Arguments from Content Externalism

Stroud's 'Transcendental Arguments' Reconsidered

Semantic Answers to Skepticism

Brains in a Vat

Semantic Answers to Skepticism

Trees, Computer Program Features, and Skeptical Hypotheses

Cartesian Skepticism, Content Externalism, and Self-Knowledge

Terms of Envatment

Charity and Skepticism

The Omniscient Interpreter Rides Again

Singular Thought and Cartesian Philosophy

Self-Knowledge

Scepticism about Knowledge of Content

Knowledge of Content and Knowledge of the World

Externalism and Memory

What an Anti-Individualist Knows A Priori

The Characteristic Thesis of Anti-Individualism

Brewer on the McKinsey Problem

Wright on the McKinsey Problem

Externalism and Privileged Access Are Consistent

The Resiliency of the McKinsey Problem

Skepticism and Epistemic Closure

Epistemic Universalizability Principles

Why Nozick is a Sceptic

Skepticism and Epistemic Closure

Unfair to Nozick

Problems with the Wright Route to Scepticism

The Structure of the Skeptical Argument

Klein on Closure and Skepticism

The Elusive Virtues of Contextualism

Strategies for Refuting Closure for Knowledge

Knowledge, Evidence, and Skepticism According to Williamso

Fallibilism, Underdetermination, and Skepticism

Some Comfort for the Closure Skeptic

Some Help for the Dogmatist

KSK

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Index

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