Dissertation: Skepticism: Epistemology First, the Universality and Unity of Skepticism, and the Problem of Beginning
Research focus of dissertation:
• Epistemology First) The priority of epistemology in philosophy, and furthermore, in all forms of inquiry and cognition; theorizability vs. epistemic ascent versions of this thesis.
• Simple vs. theoretical epistemic ascent.
• The Universality of Skepticism
• The Unity of Skepticism: Reason skepticism, a/k/a regress or trilemma skepticism, as the central form of skepticism, subsuming all other forms as special cases or variants: (defeater skepticism, whether error-possibilities, ignorance-possibilities, or unjustification-possibilities; Gettier skepticism; skepticism about induction, deduction, logic, and reason; restricted domain skepticisms such as other minds, memory, the past, the external world; the extreme of defective cognitive nature skepticism; etc.)
• The Problem of Beginning: How does (truth-directed) thought, reasoning, belief begin? The problem of beginning as the trilemma (regress) problem viewed from the opposite direction.
• The Metaphilosophical Problem of Beginning: How does, can, or should philosophy begin?
Future Projects:
• Metaphilosophy: Attempting to develop a universal scheme/framework for any possible philosophy; a method for comparative philosophy; etc.
• Antiskepticisms/Beginnings: A critical classification of responses to reasons (regress/trilemma) skepticism.
• Philosophy everywhere: Demonstration of how philosophical beliefs (whether implicit or explicit) underly many, if not all, forms of inquiry, belief, judgements and decisions, and activities.
