The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy)

376 Pages·2010·1.58 MB·English

by  Richard Bett

the cambridge companion to
ANCIENT SCEPTICISM
Thisvolumeoffersacomprehensivesurveyofthemainper-
iods,schools,andindividualproponentsofscepticisminthe
ancientGreekandRomanworld.Thecontributorsexamine
the major developments chronologically and historically,
ranging from the early antecedents of scepticism to the
Pyrrhonist tradition. They address the central philosophical
andinterpretiveproblemssurroundingthesceptics’ideason
subjects including belief, action, and ethics. Finally, they
explore the effects which these forms of scepticism had
beyond the ancient period, and the ways in which ancient
scepticismdiffersfromscepticismasithasbeenunderstood
since Descartes. The volume will serve as an accessible and
wide-ranging introduction to the subject for non-specialists,
while also offering considerable depth and detail for more
advancedreaders.
richard bett is Professor of Philosophy and Classics at
JohnsHopkinsUniversity.Hispreviouspublicationsinclude
Pyrrho, his Antecedents and his Legacy (2000), and trans-
lations of Sextus Empiricus’ Against the Ethicists (1997,
withcommentary)andAgainsttheLogicians(2005).
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The Cambridge Companion to
ANCIENT
SCEPTICISM
Edited by
Richard Bett
JohnsHopkinsUniversity
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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contents
Listofcontributors pageix
Abbreviations xii
Introduction
richard bett 1
I OriginsandDevelopment 11
1 AntecedentsinearlyGreekphilosophy
mi-kyoung lee 13
2 PyrrhoandearlyPyrrhonism
svavar hrafn svavarsson 36
3 ArcesilausandCarneades
harald thorsrud 58
4 ThescepticalAcademy:declineandafterlife
carlos le´vy 81
5 AenesidemusandtherebirthofPyrrhonism
r.j. hankinson 105
6 SextusEmpiricus
pierre pellegrin 120
II TopicsandProblems 143
7 Scepticismandbelief
casey perin 145
8 Scepticismandaction
katja maria vogt 165
vii
viii Contents
9 Scepticismandethics
richard bett 181
10 AcademicsversusPyrrhonists,reconsidered
gisela striker 195
11 ThePyrrhonianModes
paul woodruff 208
12 Pyrrhonismandmedicine
james allen 232
13 Pyrrhonismandthespecializedsciences
emidio spinelli 249
III BeyondAntiquity 265
14 Therediscoveryandposthumousinfluence
ofscepticism
luciano floridi 267
15 Descartes’transformationofthescepticaltradition
michael williams 288
Bibliography 314
Index 346
IndexLocorum 370
contributors
james allen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Pittsburgh. He is the author of Inference from Signs: Ancient
Debatesabout theNatureofEvidence(2001)andarangeofarticles
aboutaspectsofStoicism,Epicureanism,ancientscepticism,ancient
medicine,andAristotelianlogic,amongotherthings.Heiscurrently
working on a book about the Aristotelian disciplines of argument
(logic,rhetoric,anddialectic).
richard bett is Professor of Philosophy and Classics at Johns
Hopkins University. His scholarly work has focused particularly on
the ancientsceptics.Heis theauthorofPyrrho,his Antecedentsand
hisLegacy(Oxford,2000),andhastranslatedSextusEmpiricus’Against
the Ethicists (Oxford, 1997, with introduction and commentary) and
AgainsttheLogicians(Cambridge,2005,withintroductionandnotes).
HeiscurrentlyworkingonatranslationofSextusEmpiricus’Against
the Physicists for Cambridge University Press. He has also published
articlesonPlato,Socrates,theSophists,theStoics,andNietzsche.
luciano floridi is Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Hertfordshire, where he holds the Research Chair in Philosophy of
Information, and Fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford.
He works on scepticism, the philosophy of information and
information ethics. He is President of the International Association
forComputingandPhilosophyandGaussProfessoroftheAcademy
ofSciencesinGöttingen.HisforthcomingbookisThePhilosophyof
Information(OUP).
r.j. hankinson is Professor of Philosophy and Classics at the
University of Texas at Austin. He has published numerous articles
ix