By the Rule of That Philosophy: Validating the Oxfordian Thesis Using Theories of Knowledge, Justification and Truth
In his 2021 history of the Oxfordian movement, Shakespeare Revolutionized, James Warren presents what he refers to as the twelve “mental revolutions” downstream of J. Thomas Looney’s 1920 book Shakespeare Identified that the public was required to undergo in order to accept the Oxfordian thesis and surrender the Stratfordian one. These included fundamental transformations of our understandings of the circumstances of the composition of the plays and poems, the significance of their internal contents, and the origins of Shakespeare’s vast knowledge.
In this presentation, based on Michael Dudley's book, 'Epistemology and the Shakespeare Authorship Question', he proposes adding a thirteenth “mental revolution” to those articulated by Warren: that Oxfordians now need to forward a meta-understanding -- an understanding of our understanding of the authorship question itself, including the epistemological bases and justifications of competing knowledge claims. In this presentation, philosophical theories of knowledge, justification, truth and historiography are applied to both the Stratfordian and Oxfordian authorship models to demonstrate the extent to which these models are capable of meeting external and disinterested philosophical criteria.
The relevant theories encompass: belief-formation processes; the nature and role of evidence in knowledge; reliable knowledge-acquisition practices; the grounds on which our beliefs are justified (as well as how these justifications are structured); the philosophical nature of truth; and the roles of explanation and understanding in history. The goal of this investigation is to develop an evaluative (and even-handed) framework for assessing the respective explanatory potentials of these competing authorship models, thereby transcending conventional internal arguments over competing evidence. Dudley argues that the Stratfordian conception of the author (and the knowledge practices and rhetoric exercised in its defence) cannot be accommodated by any of these theories, while the Oxfordian claim (and the corresponding suite of practices employed by Oxfordians) are, by contrast, robustly validated and legitimated.
Bio: Michael Dudley is an academic librarian at the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada, where he has collection and instruction responsibilities in history, theatre and film. He is the author of numerous articles on the authorship question that have been published in Brief Chronicles and The Oxfordian, as well as in mainstream publications such as the 2020 book Teaching and Learning Practices for Academic Freedom. Most recently, he co-authored (along with Bill Boyle and Catherine Hatinguais) a paper on library subject headings concerning the SAQ that was published in Cataloging and Classification Quarterly, a leading library science journal. Many of his talks may be found on the SOF’s RU-vid channel. His latest book, 'Epistemology and the Shakespeare Authorship Question: Theoretical Perspectives and Approaches' was published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Learn more:
shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org
Stratfordian Epistemology and the Ethics of Belief by Michael Dudley: shakespeareoxfordfellowship.o...
28 дек 2023
