Book Group: Taking Skepticism Seriously... Zhuang-zi... (Chung, 23 pages)

How do you know that your life is not just a dream? How do you know that your world is not just a computer simulation created by evil robots? These, and questions like them, are the challenges of scepticism, which question whether we can ever know anything at all. Modern analytical ('Western'?) philosophy has often sought to try to address the challenge posed by such sceptical questions, to show that we can indeed know things.

In this paper, Julianne Chung seeks to address such sceptical challenges with perspectives from an ancient Chinese text, the Zhuang-Zi. The Zhuang-Zi is a foundational work of Taoism, written around the 5th-3rd century BC, apparently comprising of a mix of writings by Zhuang Zhou (Master Zhuang; commonly known as Zhuangzi) and, debatably, other authors following him. Chung seeks to show how the Zhuang-Zi can be used to respond to contemporary sceptical arguments, address related questions and to suggest new questions for philosophers to pursue.

Please read the full 23 pages of the text before joining our discussion. It is available at http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1222&context=comparativephilosophy

(Julianne Chung, "Taking Skepticism Seriously: How the Zhuang-Zi can Inform Contemporary Epistemology", Comparative Philosophy 8.2 (2017), 3-29.)

About the Philosophy in Pubs Book Group

Please read the with the book or text in advance of attending the session (even if you don't feel like you've perused it or understood it fully!) as this makes for a better conversation. The point of the sessions is not for 'experts' to educate novices about the book. It is not fair for those who have read the book to have to explain things to people who haven't.

The group will then meet up to discuss the book, what they think the author is trying to say, what their key points are etc. and then to critique the arguments. As this requires substantial prior engagement, these sessions are not formally part of the Philosophy in Pubs organisation, but the large overlap means that we can use the same Meetup group and the sessions have a similar friendly and engaging feel.

To volunteer a book for subsequent sessions, please send a message to either Ben Clark or Mike Vousden by using the 'messages' tab which is found by choosing the 'members' tab at the top of the home page. If you volunteer a book, please pick a date when you would be able to attend a session. Whoever suggests the book commits to attending the session and being a ‘point of contact’ for attendees when they arrive.