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Brian Ribeiro [30]Brian C. Ribeiro [1]Brian Clark Ribeiro [1]
  1. Epistemic Akrasia.Brian Ribeiro - 2011 - International Journal for the Study of Skepticism 1 (1):18-25.
    Though it seems rather surprising in retrospect, until about twenty-five years ago no philosopher in the Western tradition had explicitly formulated the question whether there could be an epistemic analogue to practical akrasia. Also surprisingly, despite the prima facie analogue with practical akrasia (the possibility of which is not much disputed), much of the recent work on this question has defended the rather bold view that epistemic akrasia is impossible. While the arguments purporting to show the impossibility of epistemic akrasia (...)
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  2.  37
    Philosophy and disagreement.Brian Ribeiro - 2011 - Critica 43 (127):3-25.
    Disagreement as we find it in both the history and the contemporary practice of philosophy is an inadequately understood phenomenon. In this paper I outline and motivate the problem of disagreement, arguing that "hard cases" of disagreement confront us with an unresolved, and seemingly unresolvable, challenge to the rationality of philosophical discourse, thereby raising the specter of a worri-some form of metaphilosophical skepticism. A variety of responses and attempted evasions are considered, though none are found to be particularly satisfying: Thus, (...)
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  3.  35
    Cicero’s Aspirationalist Radical Skepticism in the Academica.Brian Ribeiro - 2022 - History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 25 (2):309-326.
    I defend the view that Cicero writes the Academica from the perspective of an aspirationalist radical skeptic. In section 2 I examine the textual evidence regarding the nature of Cicero’s skeptical stance in the Academica. In section 3 I consider the textual evidence from the Academica for attributing aspirationalism to Cicero. Finally, in section 4 I argue that while aspirationalist radical skepticism is open to a number of philosophical objections, none of those objections is decisive.
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  4. The problem of heaven.Brian Ribeiro - 2011 - Ratio 24 (1):46-64.
    An argument against the rationality of desiring to go to heaven might be put in the form of a trilemma: (1) any state of being that both lasts eternally and preserves me as the person I am would be hellish and therefore would not be a state of being that I could have any reason to desire; (2) any state of being that lasts eternally and yet fails to preserve my personhood by turning me into a non-person would not be (...)
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  5. Skeptical Fideism in Cicero’s De Natura Deorum.Brian Ribeiro - 2019 - Logos and Episteme 10 (1):95-106.
    The work of Richard H. Popkin both introduced the concept of skeptical fideism and served to impressively document its importance in the philosophies of a diverse range of thinkers, including Montaigne, Pascal, Huet, and Bayle. Popkin’s landmark History of Scepticism, however, begins its coverage with the Renaissance. In this paper I explore the roots of skeptical fideism in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, with special attention to Cicero’s De Natura Deorum, the oldest surviving text to clearly develop a skeptical fideist (...)
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  6.  46
    Sextus, Montaigne, Hume.Brian Ribeiro - 2009 - Modern Schoolman 86 (1):7-34.
    Despite their divergences, I argue that Sextus, Montaigne, and Hume are committed to several substantive points of commonality and that these commonalities justify us in speaking of them as belonging to a unitary Pyrrhonist tradition. In this tradition, Pyrrhonizing doubt serves to chart the boundary of that-which-resists-doubt, thereby simultaneously charting the shape of that complex of nature and custom which constitutes the bedrock of human life — the life that remains after doubt has done its worst.
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  7.  88
    How Often Do We (Philosophy Professors) Commit the Straw Man Fallacy?Brian Ribeiro - 2008 - Teaching Philosophy 31 (1):27-38.
    In a recent paper (in Argumentation, 2006) Robert Talisse and Scott Aikin suggest that we ought to recognize two distinct forms of the straw man fallacy. In addition to misrepresenting the strength of an opponent’s specific argument (= the representation form), one can also misrepresent the strength of one’s opposition in general, or the overall state of a debate, by selecting a (relatively) weak opponent for critical consideration (= the selection form). Here I consider whether we as philosophy professors could (...)
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  8. Is Pyrrhonism Psychologically Possible?Brian Ribeiro - 2002 - Ancient Philosophy 22 (2):319-331.
    In this paper I aim to address--and also to better understand--what is perhaps the most intuitive objection to Pyrrhonian skepticism, namely, that to completely suspend one's judgment is psychologically impossible. I propose to come to an understanding of Sextus's relation to this objection by trying to more clearly understand Sextus's claims about the "Skeptic". I hope to show that it is at least possible for us to understand Sextus and his claims about the "Skeptic" without being driven to either (1) (...)
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  9.  38
    Skeptical Theism and the Creep Problem.Scott Aikin & Brian Ribeiro - 2019 - Logos and Episteme 10 (4):349-362.
    Skeptical theism is the view that human knowledge and understanding are severely limited, compared to that of the divine. The view is deployed as an undercutting defeater for evidential arguments from evil. However, skeptical theism has broader skeptical consequences than those for the argument from evil. The epistemic principles of this skeptical creep are identified and shown to be on the road to global skepticism.
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  10. Skeptical Theism, Moral Skepticism, and Divine Commands.Brian Ribeiro & Scott Aikin - 2013 - International Journal for the Study of Skepticism 3 (2):77-96.
    Over the last twenty-five years skeptical theism has become one of the leading contemporary responses to the atheological argument from evil. However, more recently, some critics of skeptical theism have argued that the skeptical theists are in fact unwittingly committed to a malignant form of moral skepticism. Several skeptical theists have responded to this critique by appealing to divine commands as a bulwark against the alleged threat of moral skepticism. In this paper we argue that the skeptical theists’ appeal to (...)
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  11. A Distance Theory of Humour.Brian Ribeiro - 2008 - Think 6 (17-18):139-148.
    This paper develops a programmatic 'theory sketch' of a new theory of humour, pitched at roughly the same level of detail, and intended to have roughly the same level of inclusiveness, as the other available philosophical "theories" of humour. I will call the theory I propose the distance theory. After an appeal to some intuitive illustrations of the distance theory's attractions, I move on to offer an analysis of observational comedy using the distance theory. I conclude the paper with some (...)
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  12.  85
    Hume's Changing Views on the 'Durability' of Scepticism.Brian Ribeiro - 2009 - Journal of Scottish Philosophy 7 (2):215-236.
    While Hume is famous for his development and defence of various arguments for radical scepticism, Hume was bothered by the tension between his ‘abstruse’ philosophical reflections and ordinary life: If he often felt intensely sceptical in his study, he nonetheless felt genuinely unable to take these sceptical views seriously when he returned to the concerns and activities of everyday life. Hume's published work shows a deep and ongoing preoccupation with this tension, and I believe it also shows that Hume's view (...)
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  13.  48
    Epistemological Skepticism(s) and Rational Self-Control.Brian Ribeiro - 2002 - The Monist 85 (3):468-477.
    In this paper I aim to do two things. First, I attempt to illustrate an interesting pattern of argument one can find in Hume's work. Next, I employ this Humean pattern of argument to show that IF there is a cogent and intuitive argument for any form of epistemological skepticism, which despite its cogency and intuitiveness has a unbelievable conclusion, THEN we lack a very important form of doxastic self-control, which I call rational self-control, over the beliefs problematized by that (...)
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  14. Must the Radical Skeptic Be Intellectually Akratic?Brian Ribeiro - 2006 - Facta Philosophica 8 (1-2):207-219.
    Supposing you were convinced by certain radical skeptical arguments that many of your beliefs were not justifiably believed by you, what stance could/should you adopt with regard to those skeptically-problematized beliefs? This paper explores a range of possible reactions, aiming to be reasonably comprehensive in coverage though admittedly suggestive rather than decisive in its treatment of each individual reaction. In considering this variety of responses we begin to see suggestive intimations of the ways in which radical skepticism could represent a (...)
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  15. Hume's standard of taste and the de gustibus sceptic.Brian Ribeiro - 2007 - British Journal of Aesthetics 47 (1):16-28.
    In 'Of the Standard of Taste' Hume aspires to silence the 'extravagant' cavils of the anything-goes de gustibus sceptic by developing a programme of aesthetic education that would lead all properly-trained individuals to a set of agreed-upon aesthetic judgements. But I argue that if we read Hume's essay as an attempted direct theoretical refutation of de gustibus scepticism, Hume fails to achieve his aim. Moreover, although some recent commentators have read the essay as aiming at a less ambitious ‘sceptical solution’ (...)
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  16.  18
    Skeptic-cum-Augur.Brian Ribeiro - 2023 - Ancient Philosophy 43 (2):503-515.
    In section 1 I present a case for understanding Cicero as a radical Academic skeptic, based on evidence from the Academica. In section 2 I offer an explanation of the concept of skeptical fideism and present a way to taxonomize various versions of the view. The material in sections 1 and 2 positions us to ask, was Cicero, the Academic augur, a sincere orthopraxic skeptical fideist? In section 3 I attempt to answer that question, beginning with an examination of De (...)
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  17. Montaigne on witches and the authority of religion in the public sphere.Brian Ribeiro - 2009 - Philosophy and Literature 33 (2):pp. 235-251.
    While contemporary readers may find what appear to be appealing streaks of liberalism in Montaigne's 'Essays', I argue that a more careful analysis suggests that Montaigne's overall stance is quietistic and conservative. To help support this claim I offer a close reading of 'Essays' III.11 ("Of Cripples"), where Montaigne offers his famous critique of the witch trials of early modern Europe. Once Montaigne's objections to the witch trials are properly understood, we see that Montaigne did not seriously or consistently dispute (...)
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  18. Cartesian Skepticism and the Epistemic Priority Thesis.Brian Ribeiro - 2002 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 40 (4):573-586.
    In ' Unnatural Doubts' Michael Williams argues that Cartesian skepticism is not truly an "intuitive problem" (that is, one which we can state with little or no appeal to contentious theories) at all. According to Williams, the skeptic has rich theoretical commitments all his own, prominent among which is the epistemic priority thesis. I argue, however, that Williams's diagnostic critique of the epistemic priority thesis fails on his own conception of what is required for success. Furthermore, in a brief "Afterword" (...)
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  19.  23
    Ciceronian Skeptical Fideism in the Octavius of Minucius Felix.Brian Ribeiro - 2022 - International Journal for the Study of Skepticism 12 (4):273-284.
    The dialogue Octavius by Minucius Felix is a point of reception in the legacy of Ciceronian skeptical fideism, and as such it deserves its place in the history of skeptical fideism. Drawing on his Ciceronian model, Minucius depicts a skeptical fideist—Caecilius—struggling to hold on to his religious traditions in the face of the challenges posed by the new religion of Christianity. But Minucius himself is a convert to the new religion and writes in its defense. And this authorial intent distorts (...)
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  20. A Really Short Refutation of the Pragmatic Theory of Truth.Brian Ribeiro - 2011 - Journal of Philosophical Research 36:31-34.
    The pragmatic theory of truth (PTT) seeks to illuminate the concept of truth by focusing on concepts like usefulness or adaptivity. However, contrary to common opinion, PTT does not merely face a narrow band of (perhaps) rather artificial counterexamples (as in a case of empirically unfounded but life-extending optimism in a cancer patient); instead, PTT is faced with a fast psychological research literature which suggests that inaccurate beliefs are both (1) pervasive in human beings and, nonetheless, (2) fully adaptive in (...)
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  21.  45
    Skeptical Parasitism and the Continuity Argument.Brian Ribeiro - 2004 - Metaphilosophy 35 (5):714-732.
    Recent literature on skepticism has raised a nearly univocal voice in condemning skeptical argumentation on the grounds that such argumentation necessarily involves our adopting some nonordinary or unnatural perspective. Were this really so, then skeptical conclusions would not speak to us in the way in which skeptics think they do: We would be "insulated" from any such conclusions. I argue that skeptical argumentation need not rely on any nonordinary or unnatural standards. Rather, the skeptic's procedure is to offer a critique (...)
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  22.  27
    A Fairly Short Response to a Really Short Refutation.Brian Ribeiro - 2011 - Journal of Philosophical Research 36:35-41.
    Brian Ribeiro argues that the pragmatic theory of truth massively misrepresents the actual use of the terms “true” and “truth.” Truths, he observes, can be distinguished from “illusions.” The latter misrepresent reality and the former do not. Psychologists, as they report on the way mentally healthy people commonly overestimate themselves, draw just this distinction. They tell us of many beliefs that are “adaptive” but illusory. Pragmatists cannot draw this distinction because their theory explains truth as adaptiveness. Therefore no sensible person (...)
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  23.  93
    Radical Epistemic Self-Sufficiency on Reed’s Long Road to Skepticism.Brian Ribeiro - 2010 - Philosophia 38 (4):789-793.
    Baron Reed has developed a new argument for skepticism: (1) contemporary epistemologists are all committed to two theses, fallibilism and attributabilism; unfortunately, (2) these two theses about knowledge are incompatible; therefore, (3) knowledge as conceived by contemporary epistemologists is impossible. In this brief paper I suggest that Reed's argument appears to rest on an understanding of attributabilism that is so strong (call it maximal attributabilism) that it's doubtful that many contemporary epistemologists actually embrace it. Nor does Reed offer any direct (...)
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  24. Sextus, Montaigne, Hume: Pyrrhonizers.Brian C. Ribeiro - 2021 - Boston: BRILL.
    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.
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  25.  48
    Clarke and Stroud on the Plane-Spotters.Brian Ribeiro - 2006 - Southwest Philosophy Review 22 (1):25-32.
    In an earlier paper ("Skeptical Parasitism and the Continuity Argument," 'Metaphilosophy' 2004: 714-732) I suggested that the well-known "plane-spotters" story-first proposed by Thompson Clarke and later developed by Barry Stroud-distorts the very skeptical view it aims to elucidate. However, considerations of space prohibited me from fleshing out my criticisms of the Clarke/Stroud story in that paper. In this paper I aim to fill in this lacuna by showing how the Clarke/Stroud story distorts the skeptic's view. I conclude the paper by (...)
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  26.  31
    Epistemic Luck - By Duncan Pritchard.Brian Ribeiro - 2006 - Philosophical Books 47 (4):372-374.
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  27.  46
    Scepticism Comes Alive - By Bryan Frances.Brian Ribeiro - 2006 - Philosophical Books 47 (4):370-372.
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  28.  46
    Butchvarov, Panayot. Skepticism about the External World. [REVIEW]Brian Ribeiro - 2000 - Review of Metaphysics 54 (2):422-424.
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  29.  38
    Greco, John. Putting Skeptics in Their Place: The Nature of Skeptical Arguments and Their Role in Philosophical Inquiry. [REVIEW]Brian Ribeiro - 2002 - Review of Metaphysics 55 (3):632-634.
    Various evangelists of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries are credited with having asked some version of the question “Why must the Devil have all the good tunes?” If we were to substitute “externalists” for the Devil and “books” for tunes, the question would be a good one to ask about recent work on skepticism. Greco’s book, like Michael Williams’s penetrating Unnatural Doubts, is both a defense of a form of externalism and one of the finest books on skepticism of recent (...)
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  30.  15
    Skepticism about the External World. [REVIEW]Brian Ribeiro - 2000 - Review of Metaphysics 54 (2):422-423.
    This book is another interesting contribution to the pool of literature on skepticism from the last twenty years which succeeds in finding a/some truth in skepticism, while in the end remaining antiskeptical. Whether we may yet receive a work which finds external world skepticism more than half-true remains to be seen, though we may certainly hope so.
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  31.  57
    Hume. [REVIEW]Brian Ribeiro - 2001 - Teaching Philosophy 24 (4):415-417.