Time: 3 September, 2016 – 4 September, 2016
Location: School II

An Arché/EIDYN Collaboration. EIDYN logo

Confirmed Speakers:

Kelly Becker (University of New Mexico), Jessica Brown (St Andrews), Julien Dutant (King’s College London), Daniel Greco (Yale), Patrick Greenough (St Andrews), Clayton Littlejohn (King’s College London), Sherrilyn Roush (Kings College London).
Confirmed Roundtable: Jessica Brown (St Andrews), Jesper Kallestrup (Edinburgh)
Since Nozick (1981) it has become standard practice to index various modal principles—such as tracking conditions and safety conditions—to methods (or bases). The guiding motivation is roughly this: if we are to properly test a belief that p for reliability then we need to test the reliability of the method which produced this belief. So, for example, on a sensitivity based conception of reliability, in order to test a belief that p for sensitivity to falsity we need to check whether the subject believes that p in the nearest not-p worlds where the subject is using (roughly) the same method of belief formation that they are using in the actual case. Put this way, indexing to methods seems to be just a form of good epistemological housekeeping, of no great importance to the larger, more vital debates within epistemology. The theme of this conference is that such a view is mistaken—that indexing to methods (and bases) ought to be a central topic in epistemology. For one thing, indexing to methods and bases can clarify and make rigorous a variety of important principles governing knowledge and justification, and thereby help us get clearer on the nature of knowledge, justification, and reliability. Moreover, a strong case can be made that getting clear about what methods and bases are and just how we should index to them, will also help illuminate and unlock a number of epistemological puzzles such as Cartesian Scepticism, Cartesian Meta-Scepticism, the various forms of Lottery Scepticism, the Paradox of Dogmatism, Kripke’s Red-Barn Closure Puzzle, the paradoxes of confirmation, and more. Despite the centrality and prominence of epistemic indexing, there has been very little scrutiny of the nature and application of methods and bases—from either a formal or philosophical direction. The purpose of this workshop is to initiate such scrutiny. Some of the many questions addressed will include: What should we index? Belief ascriptions, knowledge ascriptions, anything else?

What should we index to? Methods, bases, or something else?

What exactly are methods? What are bases? How do they relate to each other?

How should we individuate methods or bases? Internally or externally?

How does such individuation impinge upon the generality problem?

How do methods or bases interact? What of conjunctive or disjunctive methods?

Are methods/bases monotonic?

What is the importance of Nozick’s distinction between one-sided and two-sided methods?

How can methods or bases be formally represented in some suitable epistemic logic?

What is the best indexed formulation of safety?

What is the best indexed formulation of singe-premise and multi-premise closure?

How can indexing help illuminate the various puzzles and paradoxes concerning knowledge?

How does one best make sense of epistemic indexing from within a Knowledge-First Epistemology?

This workshop is one of two workshops which explores the broad theme of the metaphysics of knowledge. A second Arché/Eidyn workshop, The Metaphysics of Knowledge II, will be hosted by Eidyn at the University of Edinburgh and will organised by Professor Jesper Kallestrup.
Workshop Programme:
Saturday
11:00-11:30 Tea & Coffee
11:30-13:00 Sherrilyn Roush (KCL) Closure Failure and Methods
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:30 Patrick Greenough (St Andrews) Why Index Knowledge?
15:30-16:00 Tea & Coffee
16:00-17:30Julien Dutant (KCL) Safety without method
17:30-19:00 Reception
Sunday
09:00-09:30 Tea & Coffee
09.30-11.00 Daniel Greco (Yale) Fragmented Belief and Knowledge.
11.00-11.30 Tea and Coffee
11.30-13.00 Kelly Becker (New Mexico) Is an appearance-based individuation of basic methods compatible with epistemological and content externalism?
13.00-14.00 Lunch
14.00-15.30 Clayton Littlejohn (KCL) tba
15.30-16.00 Break
16.00-17.30 Jessica Brown (St Andrews) Defeat and Closure
17.30-18.15 Roundtable: Jesper Kallestrup, Jessica Brown, Julien Dutant
This event is open to all philosophers in Scotland and beyond and is made possible by the generous support of the Scots Philosophical Association and The Mind Association.

The Workshop organiser is Patrick Greenough. For more information, please send an email to Patrick at pmg2@st-andrews.ac.uk

To register for this event, please send an email to arche@st-andrews.ac.uk
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