Scepticism Comes Alive

In epistemology the nagging voice of the sceptic has always been present. Over the last thirty years or so philosophers have thought of several promising ways to counter the radical sceptic: for instance, facts about the reliability of our cognitive processes, principles determining which possibilities must be ruled out in order to have knowledge, and principles regarding the context-sensitivity of knowledge attributions. In this entertaining and provocative book,Bryan Frances presents a new argument template for generating new kinds of radical scepticism, ones that hold even if all the clever anti-sceptical fixes defeat the traditional sceptic. Not only is the argument schema novel, but the sceptical consequences are entirely unexpected. Although the newsceptic concludes that we don't know that fire engines are red, that we sometimes have pains in our knees, or even that we believe that fire engines are red or that knees sometimes throb, he admits that we know millions of exotic truths such as the fact that black holes exist. You can know about the existence of black holes, but not about the colour of your shirt or even about what you believe regarding the colour of your shirt. The new sceptical arguments proceed in the usual way (here's a sceptical hypothesis; you can't neutralize it, you have to be able to neutralize it to know P; so you don't know P), but the sceptical hypotheses plugged into it are 'real live' scientific-philosophical hypotheses often thought to be actually true, such as error theories about belief, colour, pain location, and character traits. Frances investigates the questions, 'Under what conditions do we need to rule out these error theories inorder to know things inconsistent with them?' and 'Can we rule them out?' Particular attention is paid to recent methods used to counter the traditional sceptic. Sharp, witty, and fun to read, Scepticism Comes Alive will be highly provocative for anyone interested in knowledge and itslimits.

Frances has discovered something new and interesting. Like all good philosophical ideas, it is deceptively simple, so simple that one wonders why no one noticed it before., Scepticism Comes Alive is an ingenious and persuasive book that brings to light a new kind of skepticism. (It is also one of the funniest philosophy books I have read.) It is required reading for those interested in the theory of knowledge., I think this is a terrific book well-argued, clearly written and well-organized. It is also entertaining and fun to read. Frances has an excellent command of the relevant issues and literature. In short, I think [it] is very interesting and of very high quality., Francess book is exceptionally clear and well-argued. He writes with an engaging style and presents original arguments for a fairly radical skepticism. Its central conclusion is highly controversial I think it might make quite a splash.