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560De praktische en epistemische waarde van het pyrronismeAlgemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte 108 (1): 73-98. 2016.This paper assesses both the practical and the epistemic value of Pyrrhonism as this stance is described in Sextus Empiricus’s extant writings. It first explores whether the Pyrrhonist’s suspension of judgment and undisturbedness make us behave in a moral or immoral way, and whether they allow us to attain those goals that would make it possible to live well. It then examines whether the Pyrrhonist’s suspension of judgment makes it possible to reach the epistemic goals of attaining truth and avo…Read more
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516Pyrrhonian Argumentation: Therapy, Dialectic, and InquiryApeiron 52 (2): 199-221. 2019.The Pyrrhonist’s argumentative practice is characterized by at least four features. First, he makes a therapeutic use of arguments: he employs arguments that differ in their persuasiveness in order to cure his dogmatic patients of the distinct degrees of conceit and rashness that afflict them. Secondly, his arguments are for the most part dialectical: when offering an argument to oppose it to another argument advanced by a given dogmatist, he accepts in propria persona neither the truth of its p…Read more
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512Review of S. Goldberg, Relying on Others: An Essay in Epistemology (OUP, 2010). (review)Philosophy in Review 32 (6): 468-470. 2012.
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509Review of S. Charles & P. J. Smith (eds.), Scepticism in the Eighteenth Century: Enlightenment, Lumières, Aufklärung (Springer, 2013). (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 53 (3): 551-552. 2015.
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501Sources of Doxastic Disturbance in Sextus EmpiricusOxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 56. 2019.In his account of Pyrrhonism, Sextus Empiricus talks about the disturbance concerning matters of opinion that afflicts his dogmatic rivals and that he himself was afflicted by before his conversion to Pyrrhonism. The aim of the present paper is to identify the distinct sources of doxastic disturbance that can be found in that account, and to determine whether and, if so, how they are related. The thesis to be defended is that it is possible to discern three sources of doxastic disturbance and th…Read more
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493Review of R. Bett (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism (CUP, 2010). (review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 19 (3). 2011.British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Volume 19, Issue 3, Page 573-579, May 2011
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490Experimental Evidence against Pyrrhonism: Attacking a Straw ManDialogue 61 (1): 123-138. 2022.In a recent article, Mario Attie-Picker maintains that a number of experimental studies provide evidence against Sextus Empiricus’s empirical claims about both the connection between belief and anxiety and the connection between suspension of judgement and undisturbedness. In this article, I argue that Sextus escapes unharmed from the challenge raised by the studies in question for the simple reason that he does not make the claims ascribed to him. In other words, I argue that Attie-Picker is at…Read more
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475Review of M. Forster, Kant and Skepticism (Princeton, 2010). (review)Philosophy in Review 30 (3): 186-8. 2010.
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462Pyrrhonian RelativismElenchos: Rivista di Studi Sul Pensiero Antico 36 (1): 89-114. 2015.This paper argues that Sextus Empiricus’s Pyrrhonism is a form of relativism markedly different from the positions typically referred to by this term. The scholars who have explored the relativistic elements found in Sextus’s texts have claimed that his outlook is not actually a form of relativism, or that those elements are inconsistent with his account of Pyrrhonism, or that he is confusing skepticism with relativism. The reason for these views is twofold: first, when employing the term ‘relat…Read more
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432Review of Quentin Smith (ed.), Epistemology: New Essays (OUP, 2008). (review)Philosophy in Review 30 (4): 305-8. 2010.
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396In this essay, I consider an evolutionary debunking argument (EDA) that purports to undermine the epistemic justification of the belief in the reliability of our belief-forming processes, and an evolutionary vindicating argument (EVA) that seeks to establish that such a belief is epistemically justified. Whereas the EDA in question seems to fall prey to crippling self-defeat, the EVA under consideration seems to fall prey to vicious circularity. My interest in those arguments and the problems th…Read more
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343Review of R. Fogelin, Walking the Tightrope of Reason: The Precarious Life of a Rational Animal (OUP, 2003). (review)Dialogue 45 (1): 188-191. 2006.
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309Review of R. Bett (trans.), Sextus Empiricus: Against the Physicists (CUP, 2012). (review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 22 (3): 614-617. 2014.
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302Review of David Coady, What to Believe Now: Applying Epistemology to Contemporary Issues (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012). (review)Philosophy in Review 34 (3-4): 139-141. 2014.
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291Review of W. Sinnott-Armstrong (ed.), Pyrrhonian Skepticism (OUP, 2004). (review)International Journal of Philosophical Studies 15 (1). 2007.This Article does not have an abstract
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283Personal Information as Symmetry Breaker in DisagreementsPhilosophy 97 (1): 51-70. 2022.When involved in a disagreement, a common reaction is to tell oneself that, given that the information about one’s own epistemic standing is clearly superior in both amount and quality to the information about one’s opponent’s epistemic standing, one is justified in one’s confidence that one’s view is correct. In line with this natural reaction to disagreement, some contributors to the debate on its epistemic significance have claimed that one can stick to one’s guns by relying in part on inform…Read more
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259Is Pyrrhonian Suspension Incompatible with Doubt?Midwest Studies in Philosophy 45 27-55. 2021.The Pyrrhonian skeptic’s stance, as described by Sextus Empiricus, is in good part defined by his suspending judgment or belief about all the matters he has so far investigated. Most interpreters of Pyrrhonism maintain that it is a mistake to understand this form of skepticism in terms of doubt because suspension as conceived of by the Pyrrhonist is markedly different from the state of doubt. In this article, I expound the reasons that have been offered in support of that prevailing view and ass…Read more
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240Review of C. Rovane, The Metaphysics and Ethics of Relativism (Harvard University Press, 2013). (review)Journal of Moral Philosophy 14 (4): 463-466. 2017.
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227Reseña de M. Wringley y P. J. Smith (eds.), O filósofo e sua história: uma homenagem a Oswaldo Porchat. (review)Anuario Filosófico 38 (82): 686-688. 2005.
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224Review of K. Setiya, Knowing Right from Wrong (OUP, 2012). (review)Philosophy in Review 34 (1-2): 78-80. 2014.
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199Can the Skeptic Search for Truth?Elenchos: Rivista di Studi Sul Pensiero Antico 42 (2). 2021.Sextus Empiricus associates the skeptical stance with the activity of inquiry or investigation. My purpose in this paper is to examine the Pyrrhonist's involvement in that activity because getting an accurate understanding of the nature and purpose of skeptical inquiry makes it possible to delineate some of the distinctive traits of Pyrrhonism as a kind of philosophy. I defend the minority view among specialists according to which (i) Sextus describes both the prospective Pyrrhonist and the full…Read more
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175Review of K. Algra, J. Barnes, J. Mansfeld, and M. Schofield (eds.), The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy (CUP, 1999/2005). (review)Philosophy in Review 27 (4): 237-239. 2007.
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159Disagreement and skepticism (edited book)Routledge. 2013.Disagreement is a pervasive feature of human life whose skeptical implications have been emphasized particularly by the ancient Pyrrhonists and by contemporary moral skeptics. Although the connection between disagreement and skepticism is also a focus of analysis in the emerging and burgeoning area of epistemology concerned with the significance of controversy, it has arguably not received the full attention it deserves. The present volume explores for the first time the possible skeptical conse…Read more
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147Review of R. Joyce, The Evolution of Morality (The MIT Press, 2006). (review)Philosophy in Review 28 (5). 2008.
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135Evolutionary Debunking Arguments in EthicsOxford Bibliographies in Philosophy. 2018.There are at least three different genealogical accounts of morality: the ontogenetic, the sociohistorical, and the evolutionary. One can thus construct, in principle, three distinct genealogical debunking arguments of morality, i.e., arguments that appeal to empirical data, or to an empirical hypothesis, about the origin of morality to undermine either its ontological foundation or the epistemic credentials of our moral beliefs. The genealogical account that has been, particularly since the ear…Read more
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133Review of K. Vogt & J. Vlasits (eds.), Epistemology after Sextus Empiricus (OUP, 2020). (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 9. 2020.This review of mine includes an illuminating footnote by former NDPR editor, Jc Beall, who arrogantly refused to say what the inaccuracy is supposed to be.
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129Review of E. Spinelli, Questioni scettiche: Letture introduttive al pirronismo antico (Lithos, 2005). (review)Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie Und Theologie 55 (1): 263-266. 2008.
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120Pyrrhonism in Ancient, Modern, and Contemporary Philosophy (edited book)Springer. 2011.In recent years, there has been renewed interest in Pyrrhonism among both philosophers and historians of philosophy. This skeptical tradition is complex and multifaceted, since the Pyrrhonian arguments have been put into the service of different enterprises or been approached in relation to interests which are quite distinct. The diversity of conceptions and uses of Pyrrhonism accounts for the diversity of the challenges it is deemed to pose and of the attempts to meet them. The present volume b…Read more
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CONICETOther
Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
Meta-Ethics |
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Action |
Philosophy of Religion |
PhilPapers Editorships
Pyrrhonian Skepticism |
Academic Skeptics |
Pyrrhonists |