Five Modes of Scepticism: Sextus Empiricus and the Agrippan Modes PDF
Preview Five Modes of Scepticism: Sextus Empiricus and the Agrippan Modes
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,8/2/2019,SPi Five Modes of Scepticism OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,8/2/2019,SPi OXFORDPHILOSOPHICALMONOGRAPHS EditorialCommittee WilliamChild,R.S.Crisp,A.W.Moore,StephenMulhall, ChristopherG.Timpson Othertitlesinthisseriesinclude Everything,MoreorLess:ADefenceofGeneralityRelativism J.P.Studd VaguenessandThought AndrewBacon VisualExperience:ASemanticApproach WylieBreckenridge DiscriminationandDisrespect BenjaminEidelson KnowingBetter:Virtue,Deliberation,andNormativeEthics DanielStar PotentialityandPossibility:ADispositionalAccountof MetaphysicalModality BarbaraVetter MoralReason JuliaMarkovits CategoryMistakes OfraMagidor TheCriticalImagination JamesGrant FromMoralitytoMetaphysics:TheTheisticImplications ofourEthicalCommitments AngusRitchie AquinasonFriendship DanielSchwartz TheBruteWithin:AppetitiveDesireinPlatoandAristotle HendrikLorenz OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,8/2/2019,SPi Five Modes of Scepticism Sextus Empiricus and the Agrippan Modes Stefan Sienkiewicz 1 OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,8/2/2019,SPi 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,OX26DP, UnitedKingdom OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries ©StefanSienkiewicz2019 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted FirstEditionpublishedin2019 Impression:1 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe addressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016,UnitedStatesofAmerica BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2018965178 ISBN 978–0–19–879836–1 PrintedandboundinGreatBritainby ClaysLtd,ElcografS.p.A. LinkstothirdpartywebsitesareprovidedbyOxfordingoodfaithand forinformationonly.Oxforddisclaimsanyresponsibilityforthematerials containedinanythirdpartywebsitereferencedinthiswork. OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,8/2/2019,SPi For my parents, Richard and Naz—for everything. OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,8/2/2019,SPi OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,8/2/2019,SPi Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 1. TheModeofDisagreement 12 SomeFeaturesofDisagreement 12 KindsofDisagreement 15 IstheScepticPartoftheDisagreement? 19 DisagreementandUndecidedDisagreement 22 PrinciplesofDisagreement 25 TwoAccountsoftheSortsofBeliefsaScepticCanHold 29 ADogmaticModeofDisagreement 31 TheMethodofEquipollence 34 AScepticalModeofDisagreement 41 ChroniclingDisagreementandCreatingDisagreement 47 ConcludingRemarks 51 2. TheModeofHypothesis 53 WhentheModeofHypothesisOccurs 53 WhatHypothesizingIsNot 55 WhatHypothesizingIs 59 TheFunctionofHypothesizing 64 ThreeModesofHypothesis 68 AScepticalModeofHypothesis 72 TheModeofHypothesisasaLimitingCaseofthe MethodofEquipollence 74 ConcludingRemarks 76 3. TheModeofInfiniteRegression 77 InfinityIntroduced 77 TheUnacceptabilityofInfinitelyRegressiveArguments 80 TheUnsurveyabilityofInfinitelyRegressiveArguments 87 InfiniteRegressionandtheSuspensionofJudgement 93 ADogmaticModeofInfiniteRegression 97 AScepticalModeofInfiniteRegression 99 ConcludingRemarks 102 4. TheModeofReciprocity 104 ReciprocityParalleltoInfiniteRegression 104 FormalReciprocity 105 OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,8/2/2019,SPi viii CONTENTS RegressiveReciprocity 108 ConceptualReciprocity 110 TheUnacceptabilityofReciprocalArguments 111 TwoKindsofPriority 114 AsymmetryandTransitivity 116 FromReciprocitytotheSuspensionofJudgement 118 ADogmaticModeofReciprocity 119 AScepticalModeofReciprocity 121 ConcludingRemarks 123 5. TheModeofRelativity 125 ModesofRelativity 125 TheLogicalFormofSextus’Argument 129 Sub-Argument1 132 Sub-Argument2 134 Sub-Argument3 136 TheNatureofSextanRelativity 137 TheModeofRelativityandtheOtherAgrippanModes 143 RelativityandDisagreement 147 ConcludingRemarks 152 6. TheModesCombined 154 PreliminaryRemarks 154 Net1 157 Net2 166 TheModesRecombined 177 ActualDisagreement,PossibleDisagreement,andtheGiving ofReasons 181 DogmaticNets 186 ConcludingRemarks 190 References 193 IndexLocorum 199 GeneralIndex 202 OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,8/2/2019,SPi Acknowledgements This book owes much to many. My interest in Sextus Empiricus was sparked back when I was an undergraduate when I stumbled across Jonathan Barnes’s The Toils of Scepticism, without which—simply put—this book would not exist. That spark was fanned by attending a splendid series of lectures on Sextus by Benjamin Morison, who first prompted metothink moreabout thetheoreticalunderpinningsofthe AgrippanmodesandunderwhoseexpertguidanceIbegantoarticulate, in an MSt thesis, some of the ideas that still find expression in the following pages. So many of the insights of this book—if insights they be—Iowetomyconversationswithhim.TomyDPhilsupervisor,David Charles, whose acuity, diligence, kindness, and generosity—both philo- sophical and otherwise—remain for me exemplary, I owe a debt that cannotberepaid.Tomytwodoctoralexaminers—JonathanBarnesand ThomasJohansen—withoutwhoseencouragementandadvicethisbook wouldnothaveseenthelightofday,Ioffermyheartfeltthanks.Finally, to Peter Momtchiloff for his patience and good humour and to the anonymous readers for Oxford University Press, whose extensive and thoughtful comments have improved the contents of this book no end, Iamdeeplygrateful. Intermsofscholarship,thewritingsoftwoindividuals,inparticular, demand singling out: first, Benjamin Morison, whose work on the AenesidemanmodeshasmuchinfluencedmythinkingabouttheAgrip- pan modes, and, second, Jonathan Barnes, whose pioneering Sextan studies have provided the foil for much of the contents of this book. AhastyreadermightbeforgivenforinferringthatIonlycitetheworkof BarneswhenIwishtodisagreewithitorwhenIwishtocontrastapath taken by Barnes with an alternative path down which I subsequently tread. Nothing could be further from the truth. Though it will be plain from the following pages just how much I owe to the writings of Julia Annas, Richard Bett, Myles Burnyeat, Michael Frede, R. J. Hankinson, Benjamin Morison, Casey Perin, and Gisela Striker, Jonathan Barnes’s influencewillbeapparentonvirtuallyeverypage.
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