Epistemic Angst: Radical Skepticism and the Groundlessness of Our Believing

258 Pages·2015·6.8 MB·English

by  Duncan Pritchard

Epistemic Angst
•
Soochow University Lectures in Philosophy
Chienkuo Mi, General Editor
The Soochow University Lectures in Philosophy are given annually at Soochow
University in Taiwan by leading international figures in contemporary analytic
philosophy.
Also in the series:
Robert Audi, Moral Perception
Scott Soames, What Is Meaning?
Ernest Sosa, Knowing Full Well
Epistemic Angst
Radical Skepticism and the
Groundlessness of Our Believing
•
Duncan Pritchard
Princeton University Press
Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2016 by Princeton University Press
Published in association with Soochow University (Taiwan)
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
press.princeton.edu
Jacket art: Ghetto Theatre by David Bomberg. Courtesy of the Ben Uri Gallery and
Museum, London.
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pritchard, Duncan.
Epistemic angst : radical skepticism and the groundlessness of our believing / Duncan
Pritchard.
pages cm. — (Soochow University lectures in philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-16723-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Skepticism. 2. Knowledge,
Theory of. 3. Belief and doubt. I. Title.
B837.P75 2016
121—dc23
2015005925
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Clarke epigram appears courtesy of the Journal of Philosophy 1972.
Wittgenstein epigrams appear courtesy of Blackwell 1969.
This book has been composed in Sabon LT Std
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Mandi, Ethan, and Alexander
•

What is the skeptic examining: our most fundamental
convictions, or the product of a large piece of philosophising
about empirical knowledge done before he comes on stage?
— Thompson Clarke, “The Legacy of Skepticism,” 754

Contents
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Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
Part 1. Epistemic Angst 9
Chapter 1. Radical Skepticism and Closure 11
1. The Contemporary Radical Skeptical Paradox 11
2. Undercutting versus Overriding Anti-s keptical
Strategies 16
3. An Overriding Anti- skeptical Strategy (I): Nonclosure 17
4. An Overriding Anti- skeptical Strategy (II): Epistemic
Externalism 19
5. Radical Skepticism about Rationally Grounded
Knowledge 22
6. An Overriding Anti- skeptical Strategy (III):
Abductivism 25
7. Concluding Remarks 28
Chapter 2. Radical Skepticism and Underdetermination 29
0. Introductory Remarks 29
1. Radical Skepticism and the Underdetermination
Principle 29
2. An Overriding Anti- skeptical Strategy: Epistemic
Externalism 32
3. Attributer Contextualism as an Overriding
Anti- skeptical Strategy 36
4. Attributer Contextualism as an Undercutting
Anti- skeptical Strategy 40
5. Comparing the Two Forms of Radical Skepticism 46
6. The Source of Underdetermination- Based Radical
Skepticism 49
7. Two Sources of Radical Skepticism 54
8. Anti- skeptical Desiderata 58