Humes Radical Scepticism And The Fate Of Naturalized Epistemology

Author : K. Meeker
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137025557
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.55/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Hume's Radical Scepticism and the Fate of Naturalized Epistemology written by K. Meeker and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-05-30 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Treating David Hume as a partner in a continuing philosophical dialogue, this book tries to come to terms with Hume's influential thoughts on scepticism and naturalism in a way that sheds light on contemporary philosophy and its relationship to science.

Author : Bredo Johnsen
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190662786
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.83/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Righting Epistemology written by Bredo Johnsen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-03 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Hume launched a historic revolution in epistemology when he showed that our theories about the world have no probability relative to what we think of as our evidence for them, hence that the distinction between justified and unjustified theories does not lie in their different probabilities relative to that evidence. However, allies in his revolution appeared only in the 20th century, in the persons of Sir Karl Popper, Nelson Goodman and W. V. Quine. Hume's second great contribution to the field, which remains unrecognized to this day, was to propose what is now known as reflective equilibrium theory as the framework within which justified and unjustified theories are rightly distinguished. The core of this book comprises an account of these developments from Hume to Quine, an extension of reflective equilibrium theory that renders it a general theory of epistemic justification concerning our beliefs about the world, and an argument that all four of these thinkers would have endorsed that extension. In chapters on Sextus, Descartes, Wittgenstein's On Certainty, and other aspects of Hume's epistemology I defend new readings of those philosophers' writings on skepticism and note significant relationships among their views on matters bearing on the Humean revolution. Finally, in chapters on Hilary Putnam's "Brains in a Vat" and Fred Dretske's contextualism - the only promising version of that view - I show that both fail to rule out the possible truth of radical skeptical hypotheses. This is not surprising, since those hypotheses are in fact possible. They are not, however, of any epistemological significance, since the justification of our beliefs about the world is a function of the extent to which bodies of beliefs to which they belong are in reflective equilibrium, and no extant conception of knowledge is of any epistemological interest.

Author : Graciela Teresa De Pierris
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0198716788
Total Pages : 335 pages
Book Rating : 4.85/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Ideas, Evidence, and Method written by Graciela Teresa De Pierris and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Graciela De Pierris presents a novel interpretation of the relationship between scepticism and naturalism in Hume's epistemology, and a new appraisal of Hume's place within early modern thought. She argues that Hume was committed to the Newtonian inductive method while rejecting the place of the supernatural in our understanding of nature.

Author : Nathan I. Sasser
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1793623228
Total Pages : 203 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Hume and the Demands of Philosophy written by Nathan I. Sasser and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-03-02 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hume and the Demands of Philosophy: Science, Skepticism, and Moderation offers a comprehensive interpretation of the relationship between Hume’s scientific project and his skepticism. Nathan I. Sasser argues that Hume is a radical epistemic skeptic who has purely practical reasons for retaining the beliefs that are essential for ordinary life and scientific research. On Sasser’s reading, the key to Hume’s epistemology is his conception of philosophy as a normative method of inquiry governing the special sciences. Philosophy approves of the mental faculties that produce reasoning and sensory beliefs. But sensory beliefs and the products of reason themselves face insuperable rational defeater arguments, and because they do, philosophy demands that we suspend these beliefs. Hume’s solution to this skeptical dilemma is to point out the fatal practical consequences of doing so. He advises us not to submit to the demands of philosophy when doing so is neither agreeable nor useful to ourselves or others. Hume’s moderate approach to philosophy recognizes that if the human mind is not created by a beneficent deity, then we must learn to live with the divergence between the epistemic demands of philosophy and the practical demands of life.

Author : William L. Vanderburgh
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1498596940
Total Pages : 207 pages
Book Rating : 4.47/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book David Hume on Miracles, Evidence, and Probability written by William L. Vanderburgh and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-04-04 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Hume’s argument against believing in miracles has attracted nearly continuous attention from philosophers and theologians since it was first published in 1748. Hume’s many commentators, however, both pro and con, have often misunderstood key aspects of Hume’s account of evidential probability and as a result have misrepresented Hume’s argument and conclusions regarding miracles in fundamental ways. This book argues that Hume’s account of probability descends from a long and laudable tradition that goes back to ancient Roman and medieval law. That account is entirely and deliberately non-mathematical. As a result, any analysis of Hume’s argument in terms of the mathematical theory of probability is doomed to failure. Recovering the knowledge of this ancient tradition of probable reasoning leads us to a correct interpretation of Hume’s argument against miracles, enables a more accurate understanding of many other episodes in the history of science and of philosophy, and may be also useful in contemporary attempts to weigh evidence in epistemically complex situations where confirmation theory and mathematical probability theory have proven to be less helpful than we would have hoped.

Author : Hsueh M. Qu
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190066296
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Hume's Epistemological Evolution written by Hsueh M. Qu and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Here is a central issue in Hume scholarship: what is the relationship between Hume's early Treatise of Human Nature and his later Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding? Is the Enquiry a mere simplified restatement of the contents of the Treatise, or do the two substantially differ? Here is another critical issue in Hume scholarship: what is the relationship between Hume's scepticism and his naturalism? How can we reconcile Hume's extreme brand of scepticism with his positive ambitions of providing an account of human nature? Hume's Epistemological Evolution argues that these two issues are intimately related. In particular, this book argues that Hume's Enquiry indeed differs from the Treatise, precisely because he changes his response to scepticism between the two works. Because the Treatise has as its primary focus the psychological naturalistic project, its treatment of epistemological issues arises unsystematically from the psychological investigation. Consequently, Hume finds himself forced into an unsatisfactory response to scepticism founded on the Title Principle (THN 1.4.7.11). However, this response is deeply problematic, as Hume himself seems to recognise. In contrast to the Treatise, the Enquiry emphasises the epistemological aspects of Hume's project, and offers a radically different and more sophisticated epistemology. This framework addresses the weaknesses of the earlier one, and also constitutes a 'compleat answer' to two of his most prominent critics, Thomas Reid and James Beattie. Hume's epistemology thus undergoes an evolution between these two works"--

Author : Don Garrett
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136309357
Total Pages : 318 pages
Book Rating : 4.59/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Hume written by Don Garrett and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-11-13 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning with an overview of Hume's life and work, Don Garrett introduces in clear and accessible style the central aspects of Hume's thought. These include Hume's lifelong exploration of the human mind; his theories of inductive inference and causation; skepticism and personal identity; moral and political philosophy; aesthetics; and philosophy of religion. The final chapter considers the influence and legacy of Hume's thought today. Throughout, Garrett draws on and explains many of Hume's central works, including his Treatise of Human Nature, Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding, and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Hume is essential reading not only for students of philosophy, but anyone in the humanities and social sciences and beyond seeking an introduction to Hume's thought.

Author : Brian C. Ribeiro
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004465545
Total Pages : 175 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Sextus, Montaigne, Hume: Pyrrhonizers written by Brian C. Ribeiro and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-08-30 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brian C. Ribeiro’s Sextus, Montaigne, Hume: Pyrrhonizers invites us to view the Pyrrhonist tradition as involving all those who share a commitment to the activity of Pyrrhonizing and develops fresh, provocative readings of Sextus, Montaigne, and Hume as radical Pyrrhonizing skeptics.

Author : G. Anthony Bruno
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351976273
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Skepticism written by G. Anthony Bruno and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-12-14 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Skepticism is one of the most enduring and profound of philosophical problems. With its roots in Plato and the Sceptics to Descartes, Hume, Kant and Wittgenstein, skepticism presents a challenge that every philosopher must reckon with. In this outstanding collection philosophers engage with skepticism in five clear sections: the philosophical history of skepticism in Greek, Cartesian and Kantian thought; the nature and limits of certainty; the possibility of knowledge and related problems such as perception and the debates between objective knowledge and constructivism; the transcendental method as a response to skepticism and the challenge of naturalism; overcoming the skeptical challenge. Skepticism: Historical and Contemporary Inquiries is essential reading for students and scholars in epistemology and the history of philosophy and will also be of interest to those in related disciplines such as religion and sociology.

Author : Annalisa Coliva
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429603614
Total Pages : 131 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Skepticism written by Annalisa Coliva and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-02-09 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Skepticism is one of the perennial problems of philosophy: from antiquity, to the early modern period of Descartes and Hume, and right through to the present day. It remains a fundamental and widely studied topic and, as Annalisa Coliva and Duncan Pritchard show in Skepticism, it presents us with a paradox with important ramifications not only for epistemology but also for many other core areas of philosophy. This book provides a thorough grounding in contemporary debates about skepticism, exploring the following key topics: the core skeptical arguments, with a particular focus on Cartesian and Humean radical skepticism the epistemic principles that are held to underlie skeptical arguments, such as the Closure and Underdetermination principles the content externalism of Putnam, Davidson, and Chalmers, and how it might help us respond to radical skepticism the epistemic externalism/internalism distinction and how it relates to the skeptical problematic contextualism in epistemology and its anti-skeptical import the various interpretations of a Wittgensteinian hinge epistemology the viability of epistemological disjunctivism, including whether it can be combined with hinge epistemology as part of a dual response to radical skepticism liberal and conservative responses to the Humean skeptical paradox. Both authors are prominent figures who work on skepticism, and so one novelty of the book is that it provides an insight into their own contrasting responses to this philosophical difficulty. With the addition of annotated further reading and a glossary, this is an ideal starting point for anyone studying the philosophy of skepticism, along with students of epistemology, metaphysics, and contemporary analytic philosophy.