Contemporary Anti-Scepticism
| Abstract | This paper examines the relevance of Wittgenstein’s On Certainty to the contemporary debate regarding the problem of radical scepticism. In particular, it considers two accounts in the recent literature which have seen in Wittgenstein’s remarks on “hinge propositions” in On Certainty the basis for a primarily epistemological anti-sceptical thesis—viz., the inferential contextualism offered by Michael Williams and the ‘unearned warrant’ thesis defended by Crispin Wright. Both positions are shown to be problematic, both as interpretations of Wittgenstein and as anti-sceptical theses. Indeed, it is argued that on a reading of On Certainty which has Wittgenstein advancing a primarily epistemological thesis, there is in fact strong evidence to suggest that Wittgenstein thought that no epistemic response to the sceptic was available—at best, it seems, only a pragmatic antisceptical thesis is on offer. Such a conclusion is not without import to the present debate regarding radical scepticism, however, since it poses a general challenge for how the sceptical argument is conceived in the contemporary literature. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,679 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Only published papers are available at libraries |
Similar books and articlesDuncan Pritchard (2002). Radical Scepticism, Epistemological Externalism, and Closure. Theoria 68 (2):129-161.
Cameron Boult & Duncan Pritchard (2013). Wittgensteinian Anti-Scepticism and Epistemic Vertigo. Philosophia 41 (1):27-35.
Duncan Pritchard (2000). Is `God Exists' a `Hinge Proposition' of Religious Belief? International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 47 (3):129-140.
Duncan Pritchard (2005). Scepticism, Epistemic Luck, and Epistemic Angst. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 83 (2):185 – 205.
Kristijan Krkac (2003). Smells Like Pragmatism: Wittgenstein's Anti-Sceptical Weapons. Prolegomena 2 (1):41-60.
Sven Rosenkranz (2012). Radical Scepticism Without Epistemic Closure. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 85 (3):692-718.
Duncan Pritchard (2005). Neo-Mooreanism, Contextualism, and the Evidential Basis of Scepticism. Acta Analytica 20 (2):3-25.
Norman Malcolm (1988). Wittgenstein's Scepticism' in on Certainty. Inquiry 31 (3):277 – 293.
Duncan Pritchard (2008). Radical Scepticism, Epistemic Luck, and Epistemic Value. Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 82 (1):19-41.
Duncan Pritchard (2002). Resurrecting the Moorean Response to the Sceptic. International Journal of Philosophical Studies 10 (3):283 – 307.
Danièle Moyal-Sharrock (2004). Understanding Wittgenstein's on Certainty. Palgrave Macmillan.
Duncan Pritchard (2012). Wittgenstein and the Groundlessness of Our Believing. Synthese 189 (2):255-272.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2010-12-22Total downloads53 ( #19,364 of 549,087 )Recent downloads (6 months)8 ( #8,860 of 549,087 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
