Janet Broughton – författare

A collection of more than 30 specially commissioned essays, this volume surveys the work of the 17th-century philosopher-scientist commonly regarded as the founder of modern philosophy, while integrating unique essays detailing the context and impact of his work. Covers the full range of historical and philosophical perspectives on the work of DescartesDiscusses his seminal contributions to our understanding of skepticism, mind-body dualism, self-knowledge, innate ideas, substance, causality, God, and the nature of animalsExplores the philosophical significance of his contributions to mathematics and scienceConcludes with a section on the impact of Descartes's work on subsequent philosophers

In Hume's Radical Scepticism, Janet Broughton parts ways with current scholars who see Hume primarily as a naturalist philosopher pursuing the "science of man." Instead, she argues, Hume is a radical sceptic. Attending to Hume's literary strategies in A Treatise of Human Nature, she uncovers the philosophical significance of narration, irony, and what she calls "subjectivizing."Broughton begins by tracking two broad features of Hume's investigations. One is the status of the commonsense assumption that we have a large body of justified and true beliefs about the world around us. The other is the status of the cognitive norms of clarity, consistency, and evidence. She argues that Hume cedes great authority to the commonsense assumption and does not challenge it in the first three parts of the Treatise's first book. The negative arguments of those parts, she contends, are deflationary in character, not sceptical. But Broughton also argues that in Part 4, where Hume examines our beliefs in the world of physical objects, his unwavering adherence to the cognitive norms forces him to reject the commonsense assumption. Still, how could Hume maintain that we have no good reason for making the commonsense assumption that we all make about the world? The view seems untenable for any sane person, and it seems especially untenable for Hume, who goes on to make many claims about the world as he investigates the passions and morals in Books Two and Three of the Treatise. Here is where Broughton's attention to the literary features of Hume's work comes to the fore. It enables her to describe an attitude of ironic detachment that, she argues, permeates his commitment to the truth of scepticism.In this exciting new book, Broughton offers a brand new way to interpret one of the most important figures in the history of philosophy.

Descartes thought that we could achieve absolute certainty by starting with radical doubt. He adopts this strategy in the Meditations on First Philosophy, where he raises sweeping doubts with the famous dream argument and the hypothesis of an evil demon. But why did Descartes think we should take these exaggerated doubts seriously? And if we do take them seriously, how did he think any of our beliefs could ever escape them? Janet Broughton undertakes a close study of Descartes's first three meditations to answer these questions and to present a fresh way of understanding precisely what Descartes was up to. Broughton first contrasts Descartes's doubts with those of the ancient skeptics, arguing that Cartesian doubt has a novel structure and a distinctive relation to the commonsense outlook of everyday life. She then argues that Descartes pursues absolute certainty by uncovering the conditions that make his radical doubt possible. She gives a unified account of how Descartes uses this strategy, first to find certainty about his own existence and then to argue that God exists.Drawing on this analysis, Broughton provides a new way to understand Descartes's insistence that he hasn't argued in a circle, and she measures his ambitions against those of contemporary philosophers who use transcendental arguments in their efforts to defeat skepticism. The book is a powerful contribution both to the history of philosophy and to current debates in epistemology.