The impossibility of local skepticism
Philosophia 34 (4):453-464 (2006)
| Abstract |
According to global skepticism, we know nothing. According to local skepticism, we know nothing in some particular area or domain of discourse. Unlike their global counterparts, local skeptics think they can contain our invincible ignorance within limited bounds. I argue that they are mistaken. Local skepticism, particularly the kinds that most often get defended, cannot stay local: if there are domains whose truths we cannot know, then there must be claims outside those domains that we cannot know even if they are true. My argument focuses on one popular form of local skepticism, ethical skepticism, but I believe that the argument generalizes to cover other forms as well.
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| Keywords | Skepticism Local skepticism Moral skepticism Epistemic closure Philosophical taxonomy Barry Stroud CharlesLandesman Epistemology Knowledge Nihilism |
| Categories | (categorize this paper) |
| Reprint years | 2007 |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11406-007-9047-y |
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No references found.
Confucian Skepticism About Workplace Rights.Alan Strudler - 2008 - Business Ethics Quarterly 18 (1):67-83.
Greek Skepticism; a Study in Epistemology.Charlotte L. Stough - 1969 - Berkeley: University of California Press.
Skepticism About Practical Reason.Christine M. Korsgaard - 1986 - Journal of Philosophy 83 (1):5-25.
Epistemological Skepticism(s) and Rational Self-Control.Brian Ribeiro - 2002 - The Monist 85 (3):468-477.
The Local Nature of Modern Moral Skepticism.Diego E. Machuca - 2006 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 87 (3):315–324.
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2009-01-28
Total downloads
162 ( #29,913 of 2,197,165 )
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2 ( #148,610 of 2,197,165 )
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