Skepticism

This book provides a thorough grounding in contemporary debates about skepticism, exploring the following key topics:

• the core skeptical arguments, with a particular focus on Cartesian and Humean radical skepticism
• the epistemic principles that are held to underlie skeptical arguments, such as the Closure and Underdetermination principles
• the content externalism of Putnam, Davidson, and Chalmers, and how it might help us respond to radical skepticism
• the epistemic externalism/internalism distinction and how it relates to the skeptical problematic
• contextualism in epistemology and its anti-skeptical import
• the various interpretations of a Wittgensteinian hinge epistemology
• the viability of epistemological disjunctivism, including whether it can be combined with hinge epistemology as part of a dual response to radical skepticism
• liberal and conservative responses to the Humean skeptical paradox.

Both authors are prominent figures who work on skepticism, and so one novelty of the book is that it provides an insight into their own contrasting responses to this philosophical difficulty. With the addition of annotated further reading and a glossary, this is an ideal starting point for anyone studying the philosophy of skepticism, along with students of epistemology, metaphysics, and contemporary analytic philosophy.