96 - Jody Azzouni: Knowledge and Skepticism

Jody Azzouni is Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. While Jody is best known for his nominalist stance in the philosophy of mathematics, he is also an author of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. This is Jody’s third appearance on the show. On his first appearance, episode #45, he and Robinson spoke about the debate between nominalists and platonists in the philosophy of mathematics, Jody’s own deflationary stance, and some adjacent concerns about ontological commitment in both formal and informal languages. On his second appearance, episode #75, they spoke about logic, natural languages, and formal languages, and mathematics. And in this episode, they shift topics entirely, discussing Jody’s upcoming book, Challenging Knowledge, which develops an original account in epistemology that seeks to thwart skeptic challenges, and which also builds off of Jody’s most recent book, Attributing Knowledge: What it Means to Know Something (Oxford, 2020).

Jody’s Website: https://jodyazzouni.com

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

01:11 Introduction

04:31 Jody and Epistemology

09:17 Foundationalism, Coherentism, and Infinitism

17:37 Knowledge and Usage

30:37 Metaknowledge and Introspection

41:43 Sortability and Traceability

50:49 Starting Place Epistemology

59:06 Cartesian Skepticism

01:06:00 Pyrrhonic Skepticism

01:14:16 The Difficulty of Epistemology and Mathematics

01:18:32 Internalism and Externalism

01:22:47 Fallibility

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.