Description:
This book is a study of twin threats that strike at the heart of analytic
philosophy: Pyrrhonian scepticism and epistemic relativism. Scepticism
and relativism are often understood as epistemic doctrines whose main
purpose is to undermine philosophers’ views about knowledge and justifcation. Sceptics claim that none of our beliefs can be properly justifed,
and therefore knowledge of any kind is unattainable. Relativists maintain
that knowledge and justifcation can be attained, but only within systems
of presuppositions and methods whose epistemic authority is unavoidably local. In either case, philosophers cannot possess the kind of absolute
knowledge they think of themselves as having or striving towards.