Formal Epistemology and Cartesian Skepticism

Formal Epistemology and Cartesian Skepticism
Author: Tomoji Shogenji
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2017-11-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 135133655X

This book develops new techniques in formal epistemology and applies them to the challenge of Cartesian skepticism. It introduces two formats of epistemic evaluation that should be of interest to epistemologists and philosophers of science: the dual-component format, which evaluates a statement on the basis of its safety and informativeness, and the relative-divergence format, which evaluates a probabilistic model on the basis of its complexity and goodness of fit with data. Tomoji Shogenji shows that the former lends support to Cartesian skepticism, but the latter allows us to defeat Cartesian skepticism. Along the way, Shogenji addresses a number of related issues in epistemology and philosophy of science, including epistemic circularity, epistemic closure, and inductive skepticism.

Formal Epistemology and Cartesian Skepticism

Formal Epistemology and Cartesian Skepticism
Author: Tomoji Shogenji
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2017-11-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1351336541

This book develops new techniques in formal epistemology and applies them to the challenge of Cartesian skepticism. It introduces two formats of epistemic evaluation that should be of interest to epistemologists and philosophers of science: the dual-component format, which evaluates a statement on the basis of its safety and informativeness, and the relative-divergence format, which evaluates a probabilistic model on the basis of its complexity and goodness of fit with data. Tomoji Shogenji shows that the former lends support to Cartesian skepticism, but the latter allows us to defeat Cartesian skepticism. Along the way, Shogenji addresses a number of related issues in epistemology and philosophy of science, including epistemic circularity, epistemic closure, and inductive skepticism.

Representation and Scepticism from Aquinas to Descartes

Representation and Scepticism from Aquinas to Descartes
Author: Han Thomas Adriaenssen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2017-04-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107181623

The first comparative study of the sceptical reception of representationalism in medieval and early modern thought.

Pyrrhonian Skepticism

Pyrrhonian Skepticism
Author: Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2004-07-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198037953

Throughout the history of philosophy, skepticism has posed one of the central challenges of epistemology. Opponents of skepticism--including externalists, contextualists, foundationalists, and coherentists--have focussed largely on one particular variety of skepticism, often called Cartesian or Academic skepticism, which makes the radical claim that nobody can know anything. However, this version of skepticism is something of a straw man, since virtually no philosopher endorses this radical skeptical claim. The only skeptical view that has been truly held--by Sextus, Montaigne, Hume, Wittgenstein, and, most recently, Robert Fogelin--has been Pyrrohnian skepticism. Pyrrhonian skeptics do not assert Cartesian skepticism, but neither do they deny it. The Pyrrhonian skeptics' doubts run so deep that they suspend belief even about Cartesian skepticism and its denial. Nonetheless, some Pyrrhonians argue that they can still hold "common beliefs of everyday life" and can even claim to know some truths in an everyday way. This edited volume presents previously unpublished articles on this subject by a strikingly impressive group of philosophers, who engage with both historical and contemporary versions of Pyrrhonian skepticism. Among them are Gisela Striker, Janet Broughton, Don Garrett, Ken Winkler, Hans Sluga, Ernest Sosa, Michael Williams, Barry Stroud, Robert Fogelin, and Roy Sorensen. This volume is thematically unified and will interest a broad spectrum of scholars in epistemology and the history of philosophy.

Scepticism and Perceptual Justification

Scepticism and Perceptual Justification
Author: Dylan Dodd
Publisher:
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2014
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 019965834X

New essays on scepticism about the senses explore the problem of whether and how experience can provide knowledge or justification for belief about the objective world outside the experiencer's mind.

Mainstream and Formal Epistemology

Mainstream and Formal Epistemology
Author: Vincent F. Hendricks
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2006
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521857895

This book provides an analysis of the meeting point between mainstream and formal theories of knowledge.

Optimality Justifications

Optimality Justifications
Author: Gerhard Schurz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2024-02-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 019888754X

Optimality Justifications argues for a renewal of foundation-theoretic epistemology based on optimality justifications, ways of showing that certain epistemic methods are optimal with regard to all accessible alternatives. Gerhard Schurz offers a range of new ideas for epistemology, philosophy of science, and cognitive science.

Epistemic Rationality and Epistemic Normativity

Epistemic Rationality and Epistemic Normativity
Author: Patrick Bondy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2017-11-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1315412519

The aim of this book is to answer two important questions about the issue of normativity in epistemology: Why are epistemic reasons evidential and what makes epistemic reasons and rationality normative? Bondy's argument proceeds on the assumption that epistemic rationality goes hand in hand with basing beliefs on good evidence. The opening chapters defend a mental-state ontology of reasons, a deflationary account of how kinds of reasons are distinguished, and a deliberative guidance constraint on normative reasons. They also argue in favor of doxastic voluntarism—the view that beliefs are subject to our direct voluntary control—and embrace the controversial view that voluntarism bears directly on the question of what kinds of things count as reasons for believing. The final three chapters of the book feature a noteworthy critique of the instrumental conception of the nature of epistemic rationality, as well as a defense of the instrumental normativity of epistemic rationality. The final chapter defends the view that epistemic reasons and rationality are normative for us when we have normative reason to get to the truth with respect to some proposition, and it provides a response to the swamping problem for monistic accounts of value.

The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism

The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism
Author: Barry Stroud
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 1984-07-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198247613

He author argues that the sceptical thesis is motivated by a persistent philosophical problem that calls the very possibility of knowledge about the external world into question, and that the sceptical thesis is the only acceptable answer to this problem as traditionally posed.