Structuralism as a response to skepticism

David J. Chalmers*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Cartesian arguments for global skepticism about the external world start from the premise that we cannot know that we are not in a Cartesian scenario such as an evil-demon scenario, and infer that because most of our empirical beliefs are false in such a scenario, these beliefs do not constitute knowledge. Veridicalist responses to global skepticism respond that arguments fail because in Cartesian scenarios, many or most of our empirical beliefs are true. Some veridicalist responses (suggested by Bouswma, Putnam, and Davidson) have been motivated using verificationism, externalism, and coherentism. I argue that a more powerful veridicalist response to global skepticism can be motivated by structuralism, on which physical entities are understood as those that play a certain structural role. I develop the structuralist response and address objections.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)625-660
Number of pages36
JournalJournal of Philosophy
Volume115
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Structuralism as a response to skepticism'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this