Skepticism as a Form of Philosophical Experience

The focus of this conference is to explore the idea that philosophical skepticism in its deepest and historically most influential forms is best understood not as a species of philosophical thesis, position, or theory, but rather as something that enables a particular form of philosophical experience, praxis, and self-transformation. This idea is as old as the history of philosophy, finding its original sources in ancient skepticism and reasserting itself in a variety of guises throughout the intervening centuries. However, the tendency is still to construe philosophical skepticism as a form of philosophical thesis, either to be affirmed or to be denied.

The conference will not only explore the history of non- and anti-theoretical varieties of skepticism, but also their variety of forms of inheritance in contemporary Continental and Anglophone philosophy. Against the standard position in contemporary epistemology, this will contribute to a practical and transformative understanding of skepticism.