| Steven Luper, Hg.: The Skeptics.
Contemporary Essays Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003. 293 Seiten. Ashgate Epistemology and Mind Series – 
Links – Literatur |
| Modern sceptical scenarios offer an
ongoing challenge in epistemology today. The seventeen essays (plus a fine
introduction by the editor) in this anthology cover a wide range of pros and
cons. Most of the authors are well-known. The reader expects a summary of
present research into the problem of scepticism. And that's what she / he gets.
The philosophers display their positions or slightly changed new insights,
including contextualism, coherentism, and externalism. Browsing through the contents ( Table of Contents) of
these contemporary essays two very familiar essays seem to be out of order:
David Lewis' "Elusive Knowledge" and
Hilary Putnam's "Brains in Vats." The
inclusion of these influential papers is justified by two new essays, each one
following immediately its predecessor. Robert
Fogelin gives in "Two Diagnoses of Skepticism" a comparison of his
view about defeating possibilities with David Lewis' view. Under the rather
bulky title "Trees, Computer Program Features, and Skeptical Hypotheses"
Anthony Brueckner tries to refute sceptical
scenarios like the brains in a vat.As often, Fred Dretske's contribution "Skepticism: What Perception Teaches", although not new at all, striked me with its straight-forwardness. Peter Klein defends his view "that the answer to the regress problem is that the regress never properly ends" (p. 86). In the very first essay Gilbert Harman brings up what he calls "general foundationalism". He solves the foundation problem of justification elegantly. None of our beliefs and methods require justification at all, as long as there are no special reasons to distrust these beliefs (p. 1). If general foundationalism were right the reader could close the book after reading Harman's "Skepticism and Foundations." I recommend to read on. All essays are thoroughgoingly written. They require a couple of re-reads, at least from my side. Steven Luper has done a wonderful job in bringing together all these fine papers. The Skeptics is also an excellent textbook for courses in epistemology. |
| Table of Contents Steven Luper: "Introduction", S. xi-xxiii 1 Gilbert Harman: "Skepticism and Foundations", S. 1-11  online2 Michael Ayers: "What Are We to Say to the Cartesian Skeptic?", S. 13-28 3 A. C. Grayling: "Skepticism and Justification", S. 29-44 4 James Van Cleve: "Is Knowledge Easy – or Impossible? Externalism as the Only Alternative to Skepticism", S. 45-59 5 Richard Foley: "Three Attempts to Refure Skepticism and Why They Fail", S. 61-73 6 Peter Klein: "How a Pyrrhonian Skeptic Might Respond to Academic Skepticism", S. 75-94 7 Keith Lehrer: "Skepticism, Fallibility and Circularity", S. 95-103 8 Fred Dretske: "Skepticism: What Perception Teaches", S. 105-118 9 David Lewis: "Elusive Knowledge", S. 119-136 10 Robert Fogelin: "Two Diagnoses of Skepticism", S. 137-147 11 Marie McGinn: "Responding to the Sceptic: Therapeutic versus Theoretical Diagnosis", S. 149-163 12 Ernest Sosa: "Neither Contextualism Nor Skepticism", S. 165-182 13 Steven Luper: "Indiscernability Skepticism", S. 183-202, online14 Hilary Putnam: "Brains in Vats", S. 203-216, online15 Anthony Brueckner: "Trees, Computer Program Features, and Skeptical Hypotheses", S. 217-226 16 Shaun Nichols, Stephen Stich, Jonathan M. Weinberg: "Metaskepticism: Meditations in Ethno-Epistemology", S. 227-247, online17 David Bloor: "Scepticism and the Social Construction of Science and Technology: The Case of the Boundary Layer", S. 249-265 Bibliography, S. 267-287 – Index, S. 289-293 |
| Links |
| Brains in a Vat in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |
| Skepticism in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |
| The Skeptics reviewed by: Ward E. Jones |
| Steven Luper, Professor of Philosophy, Trinity University, San
Antonio, USA Duncan Pritchard 2002: "Recent Work on Radical Skepticism". In: American Philosophical Quarterly 39. S. 215-57, mit Berücksichtigung von Steven Luper: The Skeptics. Contemporary Essays |
| Michael
D. Roth, Glenn Ross, Hg.: Doubting. Contemporary Perspectives on
Skepticism |
| Literatur |
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 Steven Luper: The Skeptics.
Contemporary Essays. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003. 293 S. Ashgate epistemology
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© by Herbert Huber, Am Fröschlanger 15, 83512 Wasserburg, Germany, 23.1.2005