Topic: Skepticism

We will begin the course by rummaging through large chunks of the ancient
Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus' Outlines of Skepticism (Recently translated
by Julia Annas and Jonathan Barnes).  We will then leap ahead to the
contemporary scene in analytical philosophy, considering responses to
philosophical skepticism by such philosophers as Stroud, Lewis, Nozick, Putnam,
Dretske, Nagel, and Unger.  (These are conveniently collected into a brand new
collection of fourteen essays for Oxford Press.)  We will close by considering an
ingenious recent argument by Alvin Plantinga that philosophical naturalism is
self-defeating, because it leads to wholesale skepticism about the reliability of
human belief formation.

There will be opportunity in the latter part of the course for seminar
presentations.  Students will be asked to write a long term paper (along with
some short expositions of certain readings).  Those with expertise or interest in
any part of the history of the topic of skepticism between Sextus and the present
are encouraged to pursue that interest in both the presentations and term
papers.