Brett Yardley is a PhD candidate at KU Leuven and Marquette University, currently completing a dissertation on testimony and tradition in medieval Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.  In 2018–19, he held a Fulbright grant to conduct research in Belgium. His work shows that applying the concepts of contemporary social epistemology allows the medieval tradition to be read in a new light. Brett has recently published “Trust and Perspectivalism in the History of Epistemology: Testimony and After Certainty,” in Neo-Scolastica, and “Biblical Inspiration & Islamic Instrumental Causality: Thomas Aquinas on Prophecy and the Two Authors of Sacred Scripture,” in The Muslim World. In the Max Planck Research Group “Experience in the Premodern Sciences of Soul & Body, ca. 800–1650,” he will work on the project “Knowledge Ensouled: Premodern Experience of the Natural World,” discussing the notions of authority and the transmission of knowledge within communities via spoken and written testimony.

Publications

  • “Trust and Perspectivalism in the History of Epistemology: Testimony and After Certainty,” Rivista Di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica 112, no. 1 (2020): 95–109.
  • “Biblical Inspiration & Islamic Instrumental Causality: Thomas Aquinas on Prophecy and the Two Authors of Sacred Scripture,” The Muslim World 109, no. 3 (2019): 431–49.

Projects

No current projects were found for this scholar.

When to Trust Authoritative Testimony: Generation and Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Thought

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Presentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities

"Medieval and Renaissance Testimony on When to Trust Authority"

“Philosophy in the Abrahamic Traditions: Structures of Being, World and Mind” at The Institute of Ismaeli Studies, London

“Saadya Gaon’s Metaphysics of Revelation”

7th Annual Symposium on Medieval & Renaissance Studies at St. Louis University, St. Louis

https://slu.cloud-cme.com/default.aspx?EID=10364&P=5
“Revealed Testimony in Abrahamic Faiths“

2019 AAIWG International Meeting: Philosophy in the Abrahamic Traditions: Intellect, Experience and Renaissance at University of Pisa, Pisa

https://academic.mu.edu/taylorr/Aquinas_and_the_Arabs/Spring_2019_Pisa_AAIWG_International_Meeting.html
“Trust and Perspectivalism in the History of Epistemology: Testimony and After Certainty”

De Wulf - Mansion Centre for Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Philosophy - Philosophical Review Club at KU Leuven, Leuven

https://hiw.kuleuven.be/dwmc/events/agenda/PRC-yardley
“ ‘Epistemological wall’ as Selection Criterion: An Alternative Abrahamic trio to Averroes, Maimonides, and Aquinas”

Cordoba Near Eastern Research Unit (CNERU) at Universidad de Cordoba, Cordoba

https://www.uco.es/cneru/