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49Still UnnaturalJournal of Philosophical Research 22 29-39. 1997.Professor Vogel claims that my responses to scepticism leave the traditional problems standing. I argue in reply that he fails to take sufficiently seriously the diagnostic character of my enterprise. My aim is not to offer direct refutations of sceptical arguments, taking such arguments at face value, but to undermine their plausibility by revealing their dependence on unacknowledged and contentious theoretical presuppositions. Professor Rorty is much more sympathetic to my approach but thinks …Read more
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45Meaning Without Representation: Essays on Truth, Expression, Normativity, and Naturalism (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2015.Much contemporary thinking about language is animated by the idea that the core function of language is to represent how the world is and that therefore the notion of representation should play a fundamental explanatory role in any explanation of language and language use. The chapters in this volume explore various ways this idea may be challenged as well as obstacles to developing various forms of anti- representationalism. Particular attention is given to deflationary accounts of truth, the r…Read more
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45I—Michael Williams: Mythology of the Given: Sosa, Sellars and the Task of EpistemologyAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 77 (1): 91-112. 2003.
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45Understanding Human Knowledge PhilosophicallyPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 56 (2). 1996.Hume thinks that scepticism is “a malady, which can never be radically cur’d.” By this he means that scepticism is theoretically unassailable. Thus
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38Hume's Criterion of SignificanceCanadian Journal of Philosophy 15 (2). 1985.IThere are various ways of being a sceptic. Most obviously, perhaps, versions of scepticism can differ with respect to scope. Scepticism can be universal; it can be directed against beliefs belonging to certain broad kinds, say beliefs having to do with the external world; or it can be quite focussed, as in the case of religious scepticism. But there is also the question of force. Some philosophers treat scepticism as a purely theoretical affair, defining it as the thesis that knowledge is impos…Read more
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30Meaning Without Representation: Expression, Truth, Normativity, and Naturalism (edited book)Oxford University Press UK. 2015.Much contemporary thinking about language is animated by the idea that the core function of language is to represent how the world is and that therefore the notion of representation should play a fundamental explanatory role in any explanation of language and language use. Leading thinkers in the field explore various ways this idea may be challenged as well as obstacles to developing various forms of anti-representationalism. Particular attention is given to deflationary accounts of truth, the …Read more
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24Induction and Justification: An Investigation of Cartesian Procedure in the Theory of Knowledge (review)Philosophical Review 87 (3): 442-445. 1978.
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22L7 Meaning, truth and normativitylIn Dirk Greimann & Geo Siegwart (eds.), Truth and Speech Acts: Studies in the Philosophy of Language, Routledge. pp. 5--377. 2007.
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15Of the sceptical traditionIn Richard Arnot Home Bett (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism, Cambridge University Press. pp. 288. 2010.
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13Groundless Belief: An Essay on the Possibility of Epistemology - Second EditionPrinceton University Press. 1999.Inspired by the work of Wilfrid Sellars, Michael Williams launches an all-out attack on what he calls "phenomenalism," the idea that our knowledge of the world rests on a perceptual or experiential foundation. The point of this wider-than-normal usage of the term "phenomenalism," according to which even some forms of direct realism deserve to be called phenomenalistic, is to call attention to important continuities of thought between theories often thought to be competitors. Williams's target is…Read more
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8Hume's SkepticismIn John Greco (ed.), The Oxford handbook of skepticism, Oxford University Press. 2008.
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6Groundless Belief: An Essay on the Possibility of Epistemology: With a New Preface and AfterwordPrinceton University Press. 1977.Inspired by the work of Wilfrid Sellars, Michael Williams launches an all-out attack on what he calls "phenomenalism," the idea that our knowledge of the world rests on a perceptual or experiential foundation. The point of this wider-than-normal usage of the term "phenomenalism," according to which even some forms of direct realism deserve to be called phenomenalistic, is to call attention to important continuities of thought between theories often thought to be competitors. Williams's target is…Read more
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6Science and Sensibility: McDowell and Sellars on Perceptual ExperienceIn Jakob Lindgaard (ed.), John McDowell, Blackwell. 2008-03-17.This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction McDowell Sellars and McDowell: Convergence Sellars and McDowell: Divergence Above the Line …and Below It Philosophy and Modern Science Notes References.
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5Descartes' transformation of the sceptical traditionIn Richard Arnot Home Bett (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism, Cambridge University Press. 2010.
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4The tortoise and the serpent : Sellars on the structure of empirical knowledgeIn Willem A. DeVries (ed.), Empiricism, Perceptual Knowledge, Normativity, and Realism: Essays on Wilfrid Sellars, Oxford University Press. 2009.
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2Mythology of the Given: Sosa, Sellars, and the Task of EpistemologyIn John Greco (ed.), Ernest Sosa and His Critics, Blackwell. 2004.
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1Wittgenstein's refutation of idealismIn Denis McManus (ed.), Wittgenstein and Scepticism, Routledge. 2004.
Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Language |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |