Table Of ContentHume’s Radical Scepticism and the
Fate of Naturalized Epistemology
Palgrave Innovations in Philosophy
Series Editors: Vincent F. Hendricks, University of Copenhagen and Columbia
University in New York and Duncan Pritchard, University of Edinburgh.
Titles include:
Kevin Meeker
HUME’S RADICAL SCEPTICISM AND THE FATE OF NATURALIZED
EPISTEMOLOGY
Forthcoming titles:
E. J. Coffman
LUCK: ITS NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE FOR HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
AND AGENCY
Annalisa Coliva
THE VARIETIES OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE
Mikkel Gerken
EPISTEMIC REASONING AND THE MENTAL
Aidan McGlynn
KNOWLEDGE FIRST?
Ted Poston
REASON AND EXPLANATION: A DEFENSE OF EXPLANATORY COHERENTISM
John Turri
THE KNOWLEDGE ACCOUNT OF ASSERTION
Palgrave Innovations in Philosophy
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Hume’s Radical Scepticism
and the Fate of
Naturalized Epistemology
Kevin Meeker
University of South Alabama, USA
© Kevin Meeker 2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-02554-8
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First published 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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ISBN 978-1-349-43895-2 ISBN 978-1-137-02555-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137025555
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13
In memory of Phil Quinn
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Contents
Series Editors’ Preface ix
Preface x
Acknowledgements xii
Note on References and Abbreviations xiii
1 A Tale of Two Interpretations 1
I. The rise of the naturalized interpretation 1
II. Issues in interpretation 4
III. Philosophy and its history 9
IV. Scepticism, naturalism and the shape of things to come 14
2 Fallibility Gains a Foothold: A Model for
Understanding Humean Scepticism 25
I. Knowledge, certainty and doubt 26
II. Certainty lost 28
III. Fallibility, probability and scepticism 32
IV. Knowledge, belief and the analytic/synthetic controversy 35
3 Fallibility’s Ultimate Epistemic Consequence 43
I. Fallibility and the extinction of evidence 44
II. Evidence, evidentness and evidential grounds 50
III. The reductio strategy 55
IV. Reductio redux: a pernicious premise 57
4 Belief without Evidence 65
I. Epistemology sentimentalized 66
II. The controversial conclusion 70
III. Pragmatism, scepticism and belief 73
IV. The title principle as an epistemic principle 77
V. Hume’s causal rules to the rescue? 81
VI. A textual challenge 84
5 Endorsing Epistemic Egalitarianism 87
I. Continuity regained 88
II. The radically sceptical nature of “moderate”
antecedent scepticism 91
vii
viii Contents
III. The Pyrrhonian bridge and a unified picture of
Hume’s scepticism 96
6 Scepticism and the “Nature” of Naturalized Epistemology 104
I. Materialism, physicalism, naturalism and
naturalized epistemology 105
II. Hempel’s dilemma naturalized, Humean style 107
III. Naturalized epistemology as an attitude 113
IV. Naturalized epistemology, scepticism and
psychology/cognitive science 116
7 Hume’s Naturalistic Internalism 122
I. Hume’s internalism: a first look 122
II. The externalist temptation 124
III. Proper functionalism and causal inferences 128
IV. Causal inferences and counterfactual claims 133
8 Philosophy after Scepticism 139
I. The statement of a sceptical position 140
II. All goes not well within: the sceptical threat of
epistemic disagreement 146
III. From naturalized epistemology to naturalized
presumptivism: a vindication of Hume’s positive project? 150
IV. Where are we? 153
Notes 157
Bibliography 180
Index 191
Series Editors’ Preface
Palgrave Innovations in Philosophy is a series of short monographs. Each
will constitute an element of the ‘new wave’ of pure or applied philos-
ophy, in terms of both its topic and the research angle, and overall the
series will be concerned with ‘hot’ new research areas in philosophy and
its neighbouring intellectual disciplines. Each monograph will provide
an overview of an emerging area; at the same time it will significantly
advance the debate in its area and give the reader a sense of where this
debate might be heading. While the series will devote attention to core
topics of philosophy, its books will also feature an interdisciplinary
outlook, as we believe that many of the most exciting developments in
our discipline involve a fusion of philosophy with other subjects.
Vincent Hendricks, Copenhagen
Duncan Pritchard, Edinburgh
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