I’m Duncan Pritchard, philosopher working on knowledge, scepticism,
applied epistemology and author of ‘Epistemic Angst: Radical Skepticism
and the Groundlessness of Our Believing’. AMA!
Abstract
I’m Duncan Pritchard, Chancellor’s Professor of Philosophy at the
University of California, Irvine, and Professor of Philosophy at the
University of Edinburgh. I work mainly in epistemology. In my first
book, Epistemic Luck, (Oxford UP, 2005), I argued for a distinctive
methodology that I call anti-luck epistemology, and along the way
offered a modal account of luck. In my second book, The Nature and Value
of Knowledge: Three Investigations, (with A. Haddock & A. Millar),
(Oxford UP, 2010), I expanded on anti-luck epistemology to offer a new
theory of knowledge (anti-luck virtue epistemology), and also explained
how knowledge relates to such cognate notions as understanding and
cognitive achievement. I also discussed the topic of epistemic value. In
my third book, Epistemological Disjunctivism, (Oxford UP, 2012), I
defended a radical conception of perceptual knowledge, one that treats
such knowledge as paradigmatically supported by reasons that are both
rational and reflectively accessible. In my most recent book, Epistemic
Angst: Radical Skepticism and the Groundlessness of Our Believing,
(Princeton UP, 2015), I offer an innovative response to the problem of
radical scepticism. This argues that what looks like a single problem is
in fact two logically distinct problems in disguise. Accordingly, I
argue that we need a ‘biscopic’ resolution to scepticism that is
suitably sensitive to each aspect of the sceptical difficulty. To this
end I bring together two approaches to radical scepticism that have
hitherto been thought to be competing, but which I argue are in fact
complementary—viz., epistemological disjunctivism and a
Wittgensteinian hinge epistemology. Right now I’m working on a new book
on scepticism as part of Oxford UP’s ‘a very short introduction to’
series. I’m also developing my recent work on risk and luck,
particularly with regard to epistemic risk, and I’m interested in
‘applied’ topics in epistemology, such as the epistemology of education,
the epistemology of law, the epistemology of religious belief, and the
epistemological implications of extended cognition. I’m the
Editor-in-Chief of the online journal Oxford Bibliographies: Philosophy,
and co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal International Journal for the
Study of Skepticism. I am also the series editor of two book series,
Palgrave Innovations in Philosophy and Brill Studies in Skepticism. I’ve
edited a lot of volumes, and also written/edited several textbooks. On
the latter front, see especially What is this Thing Called Philosophy?,
(Routledge, 2015), Epistemology, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), and What is
this Thing Called Knowledge?, (Routledge, 4th ed. 2018). I’ve been
involved with numerous MOOCs (= Massive Open Online Courses), including
the ‘Introduction to Philosophy’ course which was for one time the
world’s most popular MOOC. I’ve also been involved with a successful
Philosophy in Prisons programme. I’ve led quite a few large externally
funded projects, often of an interdisciplinary nature. Some highlights
include a major AHRC-funded project (c. £510K) on Extended Knowledge,
and two Templeton-funded projects, Philosophy, Science and Religion
Online (c. £1.5M), and Intellectual Humility MOOC (c. £400K). In 2007 I
was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize and in 2011 I was elected to a
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2013 I delivered the
annual Soochow Lectures in Philosophy in Taiwan. My Google Scholar
Profile is here. If you want to know what will eventually cause my
demise, click here. Links of Interest: I was recently interviewed by
3AM: Magazine Another recent interview, this time with the Italian
online journal, APhEx (PDF) The Introduction to my latest monograph,
Epistemic Angst: Radical Skepticism and the Groundlessness of Our
Believing (Princeton UP, 2015) “Epistemological Disjunctivism: A First
Pass”, the opening chapter to Epistemological Disjunctivism (Oxford UP,
2012) A fairly recent video of a talk I gave at a conference in Bonn
that gives an overview of my stance on radical scepticism A fairly
recent video of a talk on ‘Faith and Reason’ that I gave to a conference
(aimed at a general audience) organized by the Royal Institute of
Philosophy A ‘research in a nutshell’ video that I recorded a few years
ago A recent blog post on ‘Intellectual Humility and Conviction’, for
the Open For Debate Blog A recent blog post on ‘Farewell to Epistemic
Angst’, for the Imperfect Cognitions Blog “The Value of Knowledge”,
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article EDIT: Thanks everyone for
your questions! I apologise to all those I didn’t get to, and thanks to
everyone for having me.