Skepticism
The stance that certain knowledge may be out of reach — and that the honest, even tranquil, response is to suspend judgment.
Greek skepticism is the tradition of systematic doubt about whether certain knowledge is possible at all. It ran in two streams. The Academic skeptics (Arcesilaus and Carneades, 3rd–2nd c. BCE) turned Plato's Academy toward arguing against dogmatic certainty. The Pyrrhonists, who traced themselves to Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360–270 BCE) and were revived by Aenesidemus, sought suspension of judgment (epoche) as a road to tranquility (ataraxia). Preserved largely through Sextus Empiricus (c. 200 CE), these arguments were rediscovered in the Renaissance and went on to shape Montaigne, Descartes, and the whole modern problem of knowledge.
How it traveled
- AcademicaFormiae · -45explains
- LucullusFormiae · -43explains
- HermotimusSamosata · 180explains
- Philopseudes sive incredulusSamosata · 180explains
- Adversus MathematicosAlexandria · 190explains
- Pyrrhoniae HypotyposesAlexandria · 210explains
- Vitae philosophorum— · 240explains
- HaEmunot veHaDeotSura (Babylonia) · 933
- Praeparatio Evangelica—explains
- Fragmenta Logica et PhysicaAthensexplains
- Suidae lexicon—explains
- FragmentaApameaexplains
- Fragmenta—explains
- Scholia in Lucianum—explains
- De optima doctrina [attributed]Romeexplains
- Stromata—explains
Key passages(20)
Vitae philosophorum · Diogenes Laertius
Philosophers may be divided into dogmatists and sceptics: all those who make assertions about things assuming that they can be known are dogmatists; while all who suspend their judgement on the ground
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Vitae philosophorum · Diogenes Laertius
Aenesidemus too in the first book of his Pyrrhonean Discourses says that Pyrrho determines nothing dogmatically, because of the possibility of contradiction, but guides himself by apparent facts. Aene
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Vitae philosophorum · Diogenes Laertius
Zetetics or seekers because they were ever seeking truth, Sceptics or inquirers because they were always looking for a solution and never finding one, Ephectics or doubters because of the state of min
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Vitae philosophorum · Diogenes Laertius
Furthermore, they find Xenophanes, Zeno of Elea, and Democritus to be sceptics: Xenophanes because he says, Clear truth hath no man seen nor e’er shall know; and Zeno because he would destroy motion,
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Vitae philosophorum · Diogenes Laertius
The Sceptics, then, were constantly engaged in overthrowing the dogmas of all schools, but enuntiated none themselves; and though they would go so far as to bring forward and expound the dogmas of the
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Vitae philosophorum · Diogenes Laertius
As for those who think that we should not judge of truth from surrounding circumstances or legislate on the basis of what is found in nature, these men, they used to say, made themselves the measure o
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V Some brief notes about the Pyrronian philosophers and the Academics; and of the difference between them. THOSE whom we call the Pyrronian philosophers are designated by the Greek name skeptikoi/, or
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HERMES Very well. ZEUS Whom have we left? HERMES This Sceptic is still on our hands. Reddy, come here and be put up without delay. The crowd is already drifting away, and there will be but few at his
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Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes · Sextus Empiricus
Those who believe they have discovered it are the ‟Dogmatists,” specially so called—Aristotle, for example, and Epicurus and the Stoics and certain others; Cleitomachus and Carneades and other Academi
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Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes · Sextus Empiricus
Hence it seems reasonable to hold that the main types of philosophy are three—the Dogmatic, the Academic, and the Sceptic. Of the other systems it will best become others to speak: our task at present
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Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes · Sextus Empiricus
On the other hand, the man who determines nothing as to what is naturally good or bad neither shuns nor pursues anything eagerly; and, in consequence, he is unperturbed. The Sceptic, in fact, had the
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Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes · Sextus Empiricus
If, however, our disputant, by way of escape from this conclusion, should claim to assume as granted and without demonstration some postulate for the demonstration of the next steps of his argument, t
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