Dr. Brian Ribeiro
UC Foundation Associate Professor
232B Holt Hall
(423)425-4338
Email
DR. BRIAN RIBEIRO did his undergraduate work at Mississippi College, where he received a B.S. in psychology in 1996. He then went to Vanderbilt University to do his graduate work in philosophy (M.A. 1999; Ph.D. 2001). His dissertation, on “Skepticism and Human Values,” defended a form of Cartesian skepticism and explored the value-theoretic implications of that radically skeptical position. Since 2001, Ribeiro has published on various aspects of the power and majesty of radical skepticism, in both its ancient and its modern forms. His current research is primarily focused on Hume and on Pyrrhonian skepticism, along with certain issues in what might be called epistemic psychology, most especially the set of questions related to the sense(s) in which we are—or are not—able to “take skepticism seriously” and be changed or transformed by skeptical insights.
Ribeiro has won awards for both his teaching (Outstanding Teacher Award for 2009 in Arts & Sciences, UTC; 2001 Franklin J. Matchette Award for Excellence in Teaching, while teaching at Vanderbilt) and his research (2004 APA Rockefeller Prize, for his paper “Skeptical Parasitism and the Continuity Argument”). He has been teaching at UTC since August 2004, and in August 2008 he was awarded the distinction of becoming a UC Foundation Professor.
In January 2013 Dr. Ribeiro was elected to membership on the UTC Council of Scholars.
Publications
1. “Skeptical Theism, Moral Skepticism, and Divine Commands” (with Scott Aikin), International Journal for the Study of Skepticism, forthcoming.
2. “Epistemic Akrasia,” International Journal for the Study of Skepticism 1 (2011): 18-25.
3. “Philosophy and Disagreement,” Crítica 43 (2011): 3-25.
4. “A Really Short Refutation of the Pragmatic Theory of Truth,” Journal of Philosophical Research 36 (2011): 31-34. [Published along with a response by Harvey Cormier: “A Fairly Short Response to a Really Short Refutation,” Journal of Philosophical Research 36 (2011): 35-41.]
5. “The Problem of Heaven,” Ratio 24 (2011): 46-64.
6. “Radical Epistemic Self-Sufficiency on Reed’s Long Road to Skepticism,” Philosophia 38 (2010): 789-793.
7. “Sextus, Montaigne, Hume: Exercises in Skeptical Cartography,” Modern Schoolman 87 (2009): 7-34.
8. “Montaigne on Witches and the Authority of Religion in the Public Sphere,” Philosophy and Literature 33 (2009): 235-251. [Reprinted in Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, Vol. 194, ed. Lawrence Trudeau (Detroit: Gale, 2011), 160-168.]
9. “Hume’s Changing Views on the ‘Durability’ of Skepticism,” Journal of Scottish Philosophy 7 (2009): 215-236.
10. “A Consistency Challenge for Moral and Religious Beliefs” (with Scott Aikin), Teaching Philosophy 32 (2009): 127-151.
11. “A Distance Theory of Humour,” Think 6 (2008): 139-148.
12. “How Often Do We (Philosophy Professors) Commit the Straw Man Fallacy?”, Teaching Philosophy 31 (2008): 27-38.
13. “Hume’s Standard of Taste and the de gustibus Sceptic,” British Journal of Aesthetics 47 (2007): 16-28.
14. “Must the Radical Skeptic Be Intellectually Akratic?”, Facta Philosophica 8 (2006): 207-219.
15. “Clarke and Stroud on the Plane-Spotters,” Southwest Philosophy Review 22 (2006):25-32.
16. “Skeptical Parasitism and the Continuity Argument,” Metaphilosophy 35 (2004): 714-732.
17. “Is Pyrrhonism Psychologically Possible?”, Ancient Philosophy 22 (2002): 319-331.
18. “Cartesian Skepticism and the Epistemic Priority Thesis,” The Southern Journal of Philosophy 40 (2002): 573-586.
19. “Epistemological Skepticism(s) and Rational Self-Control,” The Monist 85 (2002): 468-477.
[N.B.: If you have exhausted the institutional resources available to you (electronic access, print access) and you were not able to obtain a copy of one of the papers above, you are invited to contact the author who will try to supply a copy for you.]
Dr. Ribeiro's Curriculum Vitae
Dr. Ribeiro's PhilPapers Profile
