Date:
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 - 4:30pm to 6:00pm
Is it beyond doubt that one exists? In this talk I will describe a number of ways of constructing scenarios which form the basis of a sceptical challenge to the knowledge that one exists . Some of these possibilities depend upon unorthodox metaphysical views about the nature of existence, or the conditions for thought ownership -- but some of them do not. Instead they build on the general point that a sceptical scenario concerning a certain proposition p need not be a case in which p is false. I will conclude that scepticism about one's own existence should be taken no less seriously than other, more familiar, forms of sceptical challenge.