Shakespearean scholar, University of Winnipeg librarian and newest SOF Board member Michael Dudley talks with Bob Meyers about his new book, which takes a philosophical look at the authorship issue.
Watch the interview below!
Later this month Michael will be a guest on the podcast Don’t Quill the Messenger, hosted by Steven Sabel at 6:00 pm Central, November 30th, 2023.
There will also be a Facebook Live Event, open to Facebook users and non users where Michael will launch his new book, The Shakespeare Authorship Question and Philosophy: Knowledge, Rhetoric, Identity (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023). It’s a philosophical examination of the debate over the authorship of the “Shakespeare” works using theories of belief, knowledge, truth, and rhetoric, rather than the evidence internal to the authorship theories themselves. What sets Dudley’s book apart from the many other books on the Shakespeare authorship question is that, while they are focused on the truth-indicativeness of the evidence for William Shakspere of Stratford or other candidates such as Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (i.e., their credibility), his focus is on the truth-conduciveness of the knowledge-formation practices associated with those theories—in other words, the extent to which such practices tend to produce true beliefs rather than false ones. Through the use of these and other theories, we can get a much clearer understanding of which authorship theory is consistent with epistemic norms, and which is not — with significant implications for the future of this fascinating controversy.
Visit Michael’s website at https://
