Epistemology: 3. Three Responses to Skepticism

In this Wireless Philosophy video, Jennifer Nagel (University of Toronto) looks at three historically influential responses to the challenge of skepticism. We start with René Descartes’s efforts to prove that God would not let us be chronically deceived. Next, we examine Bertrand Russell’s efforts to disprove the skeptic through a strategy called ‘inference to the best explanation’, and we finish with G. E. Moore’s common sense approach.

Professor of Philosophy at University of Toronto

My research focuses on knowledge, belief, and our capacities to track these states in ourselves and others. I’m interested in the history of epistemology, both in the Western tradition back to Plato, and in the Classical Indian and Tibetan traditions.  I also work in contemporary philosophy of mind, with special interests in metacognition and mental state attribution.

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