Believe It… Or Not: Religion and Skepticism in Global Philosophy
Peter Adamson, Professor of Philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich
It is nowadays typically assumed that religious belief is defined by faith, and that a skeptical attitude is more characteristic of those who reject religion. These lectures will argue that, at least before the Enlightenment, the situation was the reverse. Religious belief was often paired with skepticism and modest claims about what humans can and do know. For example, skeptical philosophers advised that one should simply follow the religious beliefs of one’s own culture because it is the “safe” option in the face of pervasive uncertainty. After introducing this general idea at the beginning of the opening lecture, Peter Adamson will go on to look at three more specific examples: the “problem of ignorance” (why God does not give us all knowledge for free, as it were); how philosophers dealt with skepticism about the efficacy of rituals; and skeptical arguments based on the differences between animals and humans. Each lecture will range over several religious traditions: the series as a whole will cover texts drawn from the Christian, Confucian, Daoist, Greek pagan, Hindu, Islamic, and Jewish
belief systems.
Monday, April 7, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. | Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall
Critiques of Pure Reason: Epistemic Theodicy in Global Philosophy
Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. | Luce 101
Give Without Getting: Philosophical Critique of Ritual in China, India, and Greece
Wednesday, April 9, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. | LC 101
Skepticism Across Borders: Arguments from Animal Difference in China, Greece, and Islam
Peter Adamson is Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. He is the author of Al-Kindī and Al-Razī in the series “Great Medieval Thinkers” from Oxford University Press, and has edited or co-edited numerous books, including The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy and Interpreting Avicenna: Critical Essays. He is also the host of the History of Philosophy podcast which appears as a series of books with Oxford University Press.