Workshop: A Touch of Doubt. On Haptic Scepticism

Date
27–28 March 2018

Convenor
Rachel Aumiller (MCAS, Universität Hamburg)

Abstract
Touch can serve as a “reality check“ that awakens an individual from her slumber. We pinch ourselves to confirm we are not dreaming. We slap a comrade across the cheek to bring him to his senses. In everyday speech, the sceptic is often presented as a “Doubting Thomas” with the compulsion to touch what others accept on faith alone. Philosophical scepticism, however, casts doubt on the certainty of touch: Perhaps I am dreaming—dreaming even of the sensation of pinching myself awake. Is touch the guarantee of what is real? Or is the real precisely that which slips through the epistemologist’s grasp?

Participants

Adi Louria Hayon (Tel Aviv University)
Ana Jovanović (Univerza v Ljubljani)
Bara Kolenc (Univerza v Ljubljani)
Mirt Komel (Univerza v Ljubljani)
Jacob Levi (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore)
Robert Pfaller (Kunstuniversität Linz)
Libera Pisano (Universität Hamburg)
Bill Rebiger (Universität Hamburg)
José María Sánchez de León Serrano (Universität Hamburg)
Goran Vranešević (Univerza v Ljubljani)

Poster
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Programme
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