Self-Knowledge and Skepticism
A special issue of Philosophies (ISSN 2409-9287).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2022) | Viewed by 4482
Special Issue Editor
Interests: epistemology (especially content externalism, content skepticism, Cartesian skepticism, and closure principles); pop culture; public philosophy; aesthetics
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Descartes, who is arguably the father of modern forms of philosophical skepticism, held something akin to the thesis that one could not be skeptical about the content of one’s own thoughts. In Descartes’ view, even if one is dreaming or one is being deceived by an evil demon, such that one has reason to doubt the very existence of the external world and all that is in it, one can still always know what one is thinking. This claim, while once considered beyond reproach, has been under attack for decades, beginning with Hilary Putnam’s bold claim that “meaning just ain’t in the head.” Of course, the problem of knowing the content of one’s mental states is just one form of skepticism about self-knowledge. Recent decades have brought to light numerous others. For example, the ways in which one “knows” the contents of one’s own mental states may not be sufficiently reliable as to constitute actual knowledge, or we might be self-blind about certain matters—or possibly not, it is all very controversial. The goals of this Special Issue of Philosophies are to (1) bring to light the myriad skeptical arguments related specifically to self-knowledge, (2) highlight many of the proposed solutions to these problems, and (3) identify that which is distinctive about skepticism regarding self-knowledge, as compared to skepticism about the external world.
Prof. Dr. Richard V. Greene
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- self-knowledge
- skepticism
- externalism
- internalism
- individualism
- anti-individualism
- doubt
- Cartesian
- first-person access
- semantic solutions to skepticism
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