Duncan Pritchard (PhD, St. Andrews) joined the Department in July 2007 as the new Chair in Epistemology. Before coming to Edinburgh, he was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Stirling. In 2007 he was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize. In 2011 he was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2013 he will deliver the annual Soochow Lectures in Philosophy in Taiwan, which will be published by Princeton University Press. The provisional title of these lectures is Epistemic Angst: Radical Scepticism and the Groundlessness of Our Believing. Duncan is the Director of the new Eidyn research centre. He is also currently leading a major AHRC-funded project (approx. £510K) on 'Extended Knowledge', which forms part of this research centre.

Research Interests

Duncan's research is mainly in epistemology with particular focus on the following issues: the problem of scepticism, the epistemic externalism/internalism distinction; the rationality of religious belief; testimony; the relationship between epistemic and content externalism; virtue epistemology; epistemic value; modal epistemology; the history of scepticism; and epistemological contextualism. His principal monographs are Epistemic Luck (Oxford UP, hardback 2005, paperback 2007), The Nature and Value of Knowledge: Three Investigations (co-authored with Adrian Haddock and Alan Millar, Oxford UP, hardback 2010, paperback 2012), and Epistemological Disjunctivism (Oxford UP, 2012).

Duncan is also the author of Knowledge (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), What is this Thing Called Knowledge? (Routledge, 1st ed. 2006, 2nd ed. 2009), Epistemology A-Z (Edinburgh UP/Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, with M. Blaauw), and editor or co-editor of more than a dozen volumes and journal special issues (for more details about Duncan's publication record, see below). He is the editor-in-chief of Oxford Bibliographies: Philosophy and (with Diego Machuca) International Journal for the Study of Skepticism, and he is the series editor (with V. F. Hendricks) of two book series: New Waves in Philosophy and Palgrave Innovations in Philosophy. He also administers the weblog, Epistemic Value.

Aside from epistemology, Duncan is also interested in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mind and language, the philosophy of religion, and, increasingly, ethics and value theory.

Duncan is part of the Department of Philosophy's Epistemology research cluster, and is Director of the new Eidyn research centre. He is also currently leading a major AHRC-funded project (approx. £506K) on 'Extended Knowledge', which forms part of this research centre. 

Click here for his Google Scholar Profile. If you want to know what will eventually cause his demise, click here. Duncan is contributing to the University of Edinburgh's new MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) in Philosophy. Check it out here.

Teaching Areas

Epistemology, Logic, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Religion, Axiology, Wittgenstein

Publications

Books

• Epistemological Disjunctivism, (Oxford UP, 2012). (Introduction) (Reviews)
• The Nature and Value of Knowledge: Three Investigations (with Adrian Haddock and Alan Millar), (Oxford UP, h/bk 2010, p/bk 2012). (Reviews)
• Epistemic Luck, (Oxford UP, h/bk 2005, p/bk 2007). (Reviews)

Journal Editorships

• International Journal for the Study of Skepticism (with D. Machuca), (Brill, from 2011).
• Oxford Bibliographies: Philosophy, (Oxford UP, from 2010).

Series Editorships

• Palgrave Innovations in Philosophy (with V. F. Hendricks), (Palgrave Macmillan, from 2011).
• New Waves in Philosophy (with V. F. Hendricks), (Palgrave Macmillan, from 2007).

Textbooks

• What is this Thing Called Philosophy?, (editor, under contract with Routledge).
• Philosophy for Everyone, (editor, with M. Chrisman, under contract with Routledge).
• Knowledge, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). [Click here for a webcast I prepared about this textbook for students at Soochow University, Taiwan]
• What is this Thing Called Knowledge?, (Routledge, 1st ed. 2006; 2nd ed. 2009; 3rd ed. due 2013).
• Epistemology A-Z (with M. Blaauw), (Edinburgh UP/Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).

Edited Works

• Social Epistemology: Five Questions (with V. F. Hendricks), (Automatic Press, forthcoming).
• The Routledge Companion to Epistemology (with S. Bernecker), (Routledge, 2010).
• Social Epistemology (with A. Haddock & A. Millar), (Oxford UP, 2010).
• Epistemic Value (with A. Haddock & A. Millar), (Oxford UP, 2009).
• Williamson on Knowledge (with P. Greenough), (Oxford UP, 2009).
• Arguing About Knowledge (with R. Neta), (Routledge, 2008).
• Epistemology: Five Questions (with V. F. Hendricks), (Automatic Press, 2008).
• New Waves in Epistemology (with V. F. Hendricks), (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
• Moral and Epistemic Virtues (with M. S. Brady), (Blackwell, 2003).

Edited Journal Special Issues

• Extended Knowledge (with J. Kallestrup), special issue of Philosophical Issues (forthcoming).
• Extended Cognition and Epistemology (with A. Clark & K. Vaesen), special issue of Philosophical Explorations 15 (2012).
• Cognitive Ecology: The Role of the Concept of Knowledge in our Social Cognitive Ecology (with M. Gerken, J. Kallestrup & K. Kappel), special issue of Episteme 8, (2011).
• The Philosophy of Crispin Wright (with J. Kallestrup), special issue of Synthese 171, 2009.
• Epistemic Luck, special issue of Synthese 158, 2007.
• Epistemic Virtue and Virtue Epistemology (with M. S. Brady), special issue of Philosophical Studies 130, 2006.
• Epistemological Contextualism (with M. S. Brady), special double issue of The Philosophical Quarterly 55, 2005.
• Virtues: Moral and Epistemic (with M S Brady), special double issue of Metaphilosophy 34, 2003.

Key Recent and Forthcoming Articles

• 'Virtue Epistemology and Epistemic Twin Earth' (with J. Kallestrup), European Journal of Philosophy (forthcoming). (pdf)
• 'Knowledge and Understanding', Virtue Scientia: Bridges Between Virtue Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, (ed.) A. Fairweather, (Springer, forthcoming). (pdf)
• 'Entitlement and the Groundlessness of Our Believing', Contemporary Perspectives on Scepticism and Perceptual Justification, (eds.) D. Dodd & E. Zardini, (Oxford UP, forthcoming). (pdf)
• 'Veritism and Epistemic Value', Alvin Goldman and His Critics, (eds.) H. Kornblith & B. McLaughlin, (Blackwell, forthcoming). (pdf) 
• ‘Wittgenstein on Hinges and Radical Scepticism in On Certainty’, Blackwell Companion to Wittgenstein, (eds.) H.-J. Glock & J. Hyman, (Blackwell, forthcoming).
• ‘Sceptical Intuitions’, Intuitions, (eds.) D. Rowbottom & T. Booth, (Oxford UP, forthcoming). (pdf)
• ‘Re-evaluating the Epistemic Situationist Challenge to Virtue Epistemology’, Naturalizing Epistemic Virtue, (eds.) A. Fairweather & O. Flanagan, (Cambridge UP, forthcoming). (NON-FINAL pdf)
• 'Epistemic Luck, Safety, and Assertion', Epistemic Norms: New Essays on Action, Belief, and Assertion, (eds.) C. Littlejohn & J. Turri, (Oxford UP, forthcoming). (pdf)
• 'Truth as the Fundamental Epistemic Good', The Ethics of Belief: Individual and Social, (eds.) J. Matheson & R. Vitz, (Oxford UP, forthcoming). (pdf)
• 'Wittgensteinian Anti-Scepticism and Epistemic Vertigo' (with C. Boult), Philosophia (forthcoming). (pdf)
• ‘Epistemic Virtue and the Epistemology of Education’, Journal of Philosophy of Education (forthcoming); to be reprinted in Education and Social Epistemology, (ed.) B. Kotzee, (Blackwell, forthcoming). (pdf)
• ‘Dispositional Robust Virtue Epistemology versus Anti-Luck Virtue Epistemology’ (with J. Kallestrup), The Present and Future of Virtue Epistemology, (ed.) M. Fernandez, (Oxford UP, forthcoming).
• ‘Rorty, Williams and Davidson: Skepticism and Metaepistemology’ (with C. Ranalli), Humanities (forthcoming). (pdf)
• 'Davidson on Radical Skepticism', Blackwell Companion to Donald Davidson, (eds.) E. LePore & K. Ludwig, (Blackwell, 2013). (pdf)
• 'Robust Virtue Epistemology and Epistemic Dependence' (with J. Kallestrup), Knowledge, Virtue and Action: Putting Epistemic Virtues to Work, (eds.) T. Henning & D. Schweikard, (Routledge, 2013). (pdf)
• 'There Cannot be Lucky Knowledge', Contemporary Debates in Epistemology (2nd Ed.), (eds.) M. Steup, J. Turri & E. Sosa, (Blackwell, 2013). (pdf)
• 'The Power, and Limitations, of Virtue Epistemology' (with J. Kallestrup), Powers and Capacities in Philosophy: The New Aristotelianism, (eds.) J. Greco & R. Groff, (Routledge, 2013). (pdf)
• 'Anti-Luck Virtue Epistemology’, Journal of Philosophy 109 (2012), 247-79; and reprinted in Epistemology: Major Works, (ed.) R. Neta, (Routledge, forthcoming). (pdf)
• 'Wittgenstein and the Groundlessness of Our Believing', Synthese 189 (2012), 255-72. (pdf)
• 'Robust Virtue Epistemology and Epistemic Anti-Individualism' (with J. Kallestrup), Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 93 (2012), 84-103. (pdf)
• 'In Defence of Modest Anti-Luck Epistemology', The Sensitivity Principle in Epistemology, (eds.) T. Black & K. Becker, 173-92, (Cambridge UP, 2012). (pdf)
• 'Disagreement, Scepticism, and Track-Record Arguments', Disagreement and Scepticism, (ed.) D. Machuca, (Routledge, 2012). (pdf)
• 'Hume on Miracles’ (with A. Richmond), The Continuum Companion to Hume, (eds.) A. Bailey & D. O’Brien, 227-45, (Continuum, 2012). (pdf)
• 'The Methodology of Epistemology’, Harvard Review of Philosophy 18 (2012). (pdf)
• ‘Two Conceptions of Radical Scepticism’, Ámbitos 28 (2012), 13-20.
• 'The Value of Knowledge' (updated version with J. Turri), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (ed.) E. Zalta, (2011).
• 'Epistemological Disjunctivism and the Basis Problem', Philosophical Issues (supplement to Nous) 21 (2011), 434-55. (pdf)
• 'Wittgenstein on Scepticism', The Oxford Handbook of Wittgenstein, (eds.) O. Kuusela & M. McGinn, (Oxford UP, 2011). (pdf)
• 'What is the Swamping Problem?', Reasons for Belief, (eds.) A. Reisner & A. Steglich-Petersen, (Cambridge UP, 2011). (pdf)
• 'Evidentialism, Internalism, Disjunctivism', Evidentialism and its Discontents, (ed.) T. Dougherty, (Oxford UP, 2011). (pdf)
• 'The Genealogy of the Concept of Knowledge and Anti-Luck Virtue Epistemology', Der Begriff des Wissens/The Concept of Knowledge, (ed.) S. Tolksdorf, (de Gruyter, 2011). (pdf)
• 'Wittgensteinian Quasi-Fideism', Oxford Studies in the Philosophy of Religion 4 (2011), 145-59. (NON-FINAL pdf)
• 'Wittgensteinian Pyrrhonism', Pyrrhonism in Ancient, Modern and Contemporary Philosophy, (ed.) D. Machuca, (Springer, 2011). (pdf)
• 'Die Methodologie der Erkenntnistheorie', Erkenntnistheorie: Wie und Wozu?, (eds.) D. Koppelberg & S. Tolksdorf, (Mentis, 2011).
• 'Skepticism and Information' (with E. T. Kerr), Luciano Floridi’s Philosophy of Technology, (ed.) H. Demir, (Springer, 2011).
• 'Cognitive Ability and the Extended Cognition Thesis', Synthese 175 (2010), 133-51. (pdf)
• 'Epistemic Relativism, Epistemic Incommensurability and Wittgensteinian Epistemology', The Blackwell Companion to Relativism, (ed.) S. Hales, (Blackwell, 2010). (NON-FINAL pdf)
• 'Relevant Alternatives, Perceptual Knowledge and Discrimination', Noûs 44 (2010), 245-68. (pdf)
• 'Absurdity, Angst and the Meaning of Life', The Monist 93 (2010), 3-16. (pdf)
• 'Achievements, Luck and Value', Think 25 (2010), 1-12. (pdf)
• 'Religious Belief, Epistemology of', Oxford Bibliographies Online: Philosophy (2010). (pdf)
• 'Skepticism, Contemporary', Oxford Bibliographies Online: Philosophy (2010). (pdf)
• 'Testimony, Epistemology of' (with J. A. Carter), Oxford Bibliographies Online: Philosophy (2010). (pdf)
• 'Defusing Epistemic Relativism', Synthese 169 (2009), 397-412. (pdf)
• 'Scepticism and the Possibility of Knowledge', Analysis 69 (2009), 317-25. (pdf)
• 'The Value of Knowledge', The Harvard Review of Philosophy 16 (2009), 2-19. (pdf)
• 'Wright Contra McDowell on Perceptual Knowledge and Scepticism', Synthese 171 (2009), 467-79. (pdf)
• 'Knowledge, Understanding and Epistemic Value', Epistemology (Royal Institute of Philosophy Lectures), (ed.) A. O'Hear, 19-43, (Cambridge UP, 2009). (pdf)
• 'Two Deflationary Approaches to Fitch-Style Reasoning' (with C. Kelp), New Essays on the Paradox of Knowability, (ed.) J. Salerno, 324-38, (Oxford UP, 2009). (pdf)
• 'Knowledge', Central Issues of Philosophy, (ed.) J. Shand, 24-36, (Blackwell, 2009). (pdf)
• 'Apt Performance and Epistemic Value', Philosophical Studies 143 (2009), 407-16. (pdf)
• 'Knowledge and Virtue: Response to Kelp', International Journal of Philosophical Studies 17 (2009), 589-96. (pdf)
• 'Safety-Based Epistemology: Whither Now?', Journal of Philosophical Research 34 (2009), 33-45. (pdf)
• 'Radical Scepticism, Epistemic Luck and Epistemic Value', Proceedings and Addresses of the Aristotelian Society (suppl. vol.) 82 (2008), 19-41. (pdf)
• 'Greco on Knowledge: Virtues, Contexts, Achievements', The Philosophical Quarterly 58 (2008), 437-47. (pdf)
• 'Sensitivity, Safety, and Anti-Luck Epistemology', The Oxford Handbook of Scepticism, (ed.) J. Greco, 437-55, (Oxford UP, 2008). (pdf)
• 'McDowellian Neo-Mooreanism', New Essays on Disjunctivism, (eds.) A. Haddock, F. Macpherson, 283-310, (Oxford UP, 2008). (pdf)
• 'Knowing the Answer, Understanding and Epistemic Value', Grazer Philosophische Studien 77 (2008), 325-39. (pdf)
• 'Contrastivism, Evidence, and Scepticism', Social Epistemology, 22 (2008), 305-23. (pdf)
• 'Certainty and Scepticism', Philosophical Issues (supplement to Noûs) 18 (2008), 58-67. (pdf)
• 'Virtue Epistemology and Epistemic Luck, Revisited', Metaphilosophy 39 (2008), 66-88. (pdf)
• 'A Defence of Quasi-Reductionism in the Epistemology of Testimony', Philosophica 78 (2008), 13-28. (pdf)
• 'Recent Work on Epistemic Value', American Philosophical Quarterly 44 (2007), 85-110. (pdf)
• 'McDowell and the New Evil Genius' (with R. Neta), Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 74 (2007), 381-96. (pdf)
• 'Anti-Luck Epistemology', Synthese 158 (2007), 277-97. (pdf)
• 'How to be a Neo-Moorean', Internalism and Externalism in Semantics and Epistemology, (ed.) S. Goldberg, (Oxford UP, 2007). (pdf)
• 'The Value of Knowledge', Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (ed.) E. Zalta, (2007).
• 'Knowledge, Luck, and Lotteries', New Waves in Epistemology, (eds.) D. H. Pritchard & V. Hendricks, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). (pdf)
• 'Greco on Reliabilism and Epistemic Luck', Philosophical Studies 116 (2006). (pdf)
• 'Moral and Epistemic Luck', Metaphilosophy 37 (2006), 1-25. (pdf)
• 'Scepticism, Epistemic Luck, and Epistemic Angst', Australasian Journal of Philosophy 83 (2005), 185-206. (pdf)
• 'The Structure of Sceptical Arguments', The Philosophical Quarterly 55 (2005), 37-52. (pdf)
• 'Contextualism, Scepticism and Warranted Assertibility Manoeuvres', Knowledge and Skepticism, (eds.) J. Keim-Campbell, M. O'Rourke & H. Silverstein, (MIT Press, 2005). (pdf)
• 'Wittgenstein's On Certainty and Contemporary Anti-Scepticism', Investigating On Certainty: Essays on Wittgenstein's Last Work, (eds.) D. Moyal-Sharrock & W. H. Brenner, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). (pdf)
• 'Virtue Epistemology and the Acquisition of Knowledge', Philosophical Explorations 8 (2005), 229-43. (pdf)
• 'Neo-Mooreanism versus Contextualism', Grazer Philosophische Studien (special issue on Contextualism), 67 (2005), 20-43. (pdf)
• 'Greco on Scepticism' (with C. van Putten), Erkenntnis 62 (2005), 277-84. (pdf)
• 'Neo-Mooreanism, Contextualism, and the Evidential Basis of Scepticism', Contextualism, (ed.) D. Suster, 3-25, (Rutgers UP, 2005). (pdf)
• 'The Epistemology of Testimony', Philosophical Issues (supplement to Nous) 14 (2004), 326-48. (pdf)
• 'Epistemic Deflationism', The Southern Journal of Philosophy 42 (2004), 1-32. (pdf)
• 'Epistemic Luck', Journal of Philosophical Research 29 (2004), 193-222. (pdf)
• 'The Psychology and Philosophy of Luck' (with M. Smith), New Ideas in Psychology 22 (2004), 1-28. (pdf)
• 'Testimony', The Trial on Trial: Truth and Due Process, (eds.) R. A. Duff, L. Farmer, S. Marshall & V. Tadros, (Hart, 2004). (pdf)
• 'An Argument for the Inconsistency of Content Externalism and Epistemic Internalism' (with J. Kallestrup), Philosophia 31 (2004), 345-54. (pdf)
• 'Some Recent Work in Epistemology', The Philosophical Quarterly 54 (2004), 605-13. (pdf)
• 'McDowell on Reasons, Externalism and Scepticism', European Journal of Philosophy 11 (2003), 273-94. (pdf)
• 'Virtue Epistemology and Epistemic Luck', Metaphilosophy 34 (2003), 106-30. (pdf)
• 'Reforming Reformed Epistemology', International Philosophical Quarterly 43 (2003), 43-66; and reprinted in The Epistemology of Basic Belief, (eds.) R. Rood & R. van Woudenberg, (Rodopi, 2004). (pdf)
• 'Recent Work on Radical Skepticism', American Philosophical Quarterly 39 (2002), 215-57. (pdf)
• 'McKinsey Paradoxes, Radical Scepticism, and the Transmission of Knowledge across Known Entailments', Synthese 130 (2002), 279-302. (pdf)
• 'Resurrecting the Moorean Response to Scepticism', International Journal of Philosophical Studies 10 (2002), 283-307. (pdf)
• 'Radical Scepticism, Epistemological Externalism and Closure', Theoria 69 (2002), 129-61. (pdf)
• 'Two Forms of Epistemological Contextualism', Grazer Philosophische Studien 64 (2002), 19-55. (pdf)
• 'Contextualism, Scepticism, and the Problem of Epistemic Descent', Dialectica 55 (2002), 327-49. (pdf)
• 'Skepticism, Contemporary', Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (eds.) B. Dowden & J. Fieser, (2002).
• 'Scepticism and Dreaming', Philosophia 28 (2001), 373-90. (pdf)
• 'Radical Scepticism, Epistemological Externalism, and "Hinge" Propositions', Wittgenstein-Jahrbuch 2001/2002, (ed.) D. Salehi, (Peter Lang, 2001). (pdf)
• 'Closure and Context', Australasian Journal of Philosophy 78 (2000), 275-80. (pdf)
• 'Is "God Exists" a "Hinge" Proposition of Religious Belief?', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 47 (2000), 129-40. (pdf)
• 'Doubt Undogmatized: Pyrrhonian Scepticism, Epistemological Externalism, and the 'Metaepistemological' Challenge', Principia—Revista Internacional de Epistemologia 4 (2000), 187-214. (pdf)

Professional Service

Referee Work

• Acta Analytica
• Acumen Press
• American Philosophical Quarterly
• Ashgate Press
• Australasian Journal of Philosophy
• Blackwell Press
• Broadview Press
• British Journal for the History of Philosophy
• The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
• British Society for Ethical Theory
• Canadian Journal of Philosophy
• Canadian Philosophical Association
• Cambridge University Press
• Central States Philosophical Association
• Continuum Press
• Critica
• Dialectica
• Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review
• Discipline Filosofiche
  
• Edinburgh University Press
• Education Research International
• Episteme
• Erkenntnis
• Ethical Perspectives
• Ethical Theory and Moral Practice
• Ethics
• European Journal of Analytical Philosophy
• European Journal of Philosophy
• Grazer Philosophische Studien
• Journal of Applied Philosophy
• Journal of Languages and Culture
• Journal of Leeds Undergraduate Philosophy Society
• Journal of Moral Philosophy
• Journal of Philosophical Research
• Inquiry
• Les Ateliers de l'Éthique
• Metaphilosophy
• Mind
• MIT Press
• Oxford University Press
• Pacific Philosophical Quarterly
• Palgrave Macmillan Press
• Philosopher's Imprint
• Philosophia
• The Philosophical Quarterly
• Philosophy and Phenomenological Research
• Philosophy Compass
• Philosophy at Yeditepe
• Philosophy of Science
• Philosophia
• Philosophical Papers
• Philosophical Psychology
• Philosophical Studies
• Polish Journal of Philosophy
• Polity Press
• Princeton University Press
• Principia
• The Review of Philosophy and Psychology
• The Southern Journal of Philosophy
• Routledge Press
• Social Epistemology
• Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology
• Synthese
• Theoria
• Thought

Other Professional Activities

• Associate Fellow of the Northern Institute of Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen, and of the Arche Research Centre at the University of St. Andrews.
• Affiliated Researcher of the Social Epistemology Research Group at the University of Copenhagen. 
• Elected Member of the British Philosophical Association Executive Committee (2005-08).
• Member of the AHRC Review College (since 2007).
• Member of the ESF Humanities Disciplinary Panel (since 2012).
• Member of the editorial boards of The Philosophical Quarterly, Synthese, Episteme, Philosophy Compass, Metaphilosophy, Thought, Disputatio, Continuum Critical Introductions to Contemporary Epistemology, Humanities, Critical Inquiries, Philosophical Inquiries, Journal of General Philosophy, and Logos & Episteme: An International Journal of Epistemology.
• Leiter Report evaluator.
• External examiner for the Philosophy Departments at the Universities of Glasgow (2004-09) and Aberdeen (2005-10).
• Member of the Society for Skeptical Studies, the International Society for the Study of Skepticism, and International Associate member of the American Philosophical Association.
• Founding member of the European Epistemology Network.
• Member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Philosophy, Theology and Law Sectional Committee.
  

Visiting Professorships

• University of Aarhus (Denmark), 2005.
• University of Helskinki, 2009.

Administrative Roles

• PPLS Deputy Head of School, from 2009. 
• PPLS Postgraduate Director, from 2011.
• Philosophy Research Advisor, from 2012.
• PPLS Representative, College Academic Promotions Committee, from 2010.
• Gifford Lectureship Committee, from 2009.
• Director of Graduate Studies (Philosophy), 2007-10.
• Director of Eidyn: The Edinburgh Centre for Epistemology, Mind and Normativity, from 2012.
• Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded 'Extended Knowledge' major research project, 2012-15.

Office Hours:

Tuesday 3pm - 4pm