This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights and duplication or sale of all or part is not permitted, except that material may be duplicated by you for research, private study, criticism/review or educational purposes. Electronic or print copies are for your own personal, non- commercial use and shall not be passed to any other individual. No quotation may be published without proper acknowledgement. For any other use, or to quote extensively from the work, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder/s. Agrippa's trilemma: scepticism and contemporary epistemology Aaran Steven Burns PhD Philosophy March 2020 Keele University Word Count: 74970 1 Acknowledgements I must at least try (and fail) to express the deserved amount of gratitude by giving thanks to those who have aided me over the last four years – and perhaps even the last 7. My mother and grandmother have given constant support, particularly over the last year, allowing me to stay with them while finishing things up. My partner, Kathryn Hayward has offered more support than I likely deserved and shown more patience than I could reasonably expect, not to mention the more direct efforts she made in reading drafts of my work. In the early stages of my research I had a number of email exchanges with both Richard Fumerton and Laurence BonJour, who were both immeasurably helpful in helping me to understand these issues more clearly. BonJour in particular has left an almost embarrassingly large mark on my work. Although our email exchange was short, the amount which I gained was vast, and only multiplied from the subsequent reading of his work. I have, as is usual, cited his works where I have explicitly relied on them, but you should not think that just because his name is not cited in a particular passage, that his ideas have had no influence on it. I have also had several challenging conversations with Thomas Uebel about Scepticism, and these were tremendously helpful, especially as concerns the relation between Scepticism and ordinary language. His comments were always appreciated. Prof. Sorin Baiasu has been my supervisor for the last five years. I am not sure that there is any logically possible world in which Sorin is a poor supervisor. He was always available for insightful conversations both directly relevant to Scepticism and further afield. Though we have not always agreed (He may still hold, pace my efforts to convince, that the sceptical argument I discuss here is not the most serious one in the writings of Sextus), he has always been supportive, and his criticisms were often a stimulus for important further reflection and refinement of my ideas. He has given me many more opportunities in philosophy than I would otherwise have and, crucially, he is a good friend. 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................. 2 Abstract ..................................................................................................... 5 Introduction ............................................................................................. 7 1. The Basic Idea....................................................................................................................7 2. Various forms of Scepticism...............................................................................................9 3. An Overview.....................................................................................................................12 4. Epistemic Oughts and “Justification”...............................................................................13 5. Other Issues......................................................................................................................15 Chapter 1: Agrippa's Trilemma Explicated...............................................................................18 1. The Beginning..................................................................................................................18 2. Sextus and The Modes of Agrippa...................................................................................19 3. Oakley's Three Modes......................................................................................................21 4. Fogelin's Modes................................................................................................................23 5. Outlines of Pyrrhonian Scepticism ..................................................................................24 6. What is Wrong with Assumption?....................................................................................24 7. What is Wrong with Circular Reasoning?.......................................................................25 8. What is Wrong with Infinite Regress?..............................................................................27 9. Running Out of Reasons...................................................................................................30 10. Is Scepticism Self-Refuting?..........................................................................................31 Chapter 2: The Ordinary Language Critique of Scepticism......................................................34 1. Linguistic Criticisms of Scepticism.................................................................................34 2. Scepticism Defeated?.......................................................................................................37 3. An Analogy: Theism and The Problem of Evil................................................................38 4. Is Scepticism Significant?................................................................................................39 5. Does the Sceptic Contradict What I Believe?..................................................................40 6. Substantive Scepticism ....................................................................................................43 7. Jackson and Ordinary Concepts.......................................................................................43 8. Too High Standards..........................................................................................................45 Chapter 3: Phenomenal Conservatism .....................................................................................49 1. Phenomenal Conservatism: An Initial Characterization.................................................49 2. Huemer and Agrippa's Trilemma......................................................................................50 3. A Reconstruction..............................................................................................................52 Chapter 4: Do Seemings Exist?................................................................................................53 1. What is meant by “Seems”? ............................................................................................53 2. Metaphors and Seemings..................................................................................................54 3. The Seems -Talk Argument..............................................................................................56 4. The Argument from Blindsight........................................................................................63 Chapter 5: The Self-Defeat Argument .....................................................................................65 1. So Far...............................................................................................................................65 2. The Argument Stated........................................................................................................65 3. The Uncontroversial Fact.................................................................................................67 4. “Based”.............................................................................................................................68 5. The Denial of Phenomenal Conservatism........................................................................71 6. Should I Deny Phenomenal Conservatism?.....................................................................73 7. Conclusion on the Self-Defeat Argument.........................................................................76 Chapter 6: Is Phenomenal Conservatism Scepticism? .............................................................76 3 1. So Far...............................................................................................................................76 2. Phenomenal Conservatism is Compatible with Scepticism.............................................77 3. Does Phenomenal Conservatism Stop the Regress? .......................................................77 4. What is the Question?.......................................................................................................80 Chapter 7: The Implications of Doxastic Conservatism...........................................................83 1. Is Doxastic Conservatism Plausible? ..............................................................................83 2. Philosophy and Phenomenal Conservatism.....................................................................84 3. Markie's Counter-Examples.............................................................................................86 4. Doxastic Conservatism and Religious Belief...................................................................87 5. Modest Doxastic Conservatism