Research Catalog

Title

The skeptic way : Sextus Empiricus's Outlines of Pyrrhonism / translated, with introduction and commentary by Benson Mates.

Author

Sextus, Empiricus.

Publication

New York : Oxford University Press, 1995.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Mates, Benson, 1919-

Description

ix, 335 pages; 24 cm

Summary

• The Outlines of Pyrrhonism, by the 2nd century A.D. Greek physician Sextus Empiricus was immensely influential in the history of Western philosophy. The rediscovery and publication of this work in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries led directly to the skepticism of Montaigne, Gassendi, Bayle, Descartes, Berkeley, Hume, and others, and eventually to the preoccupation of modern philosophy with attempts to refute or otherwise combat philosophical skepticism.
• In recent years, however, it has become apparent that Pyrrhonism is in several important respects quite different from the modem forms of skpticism to which the writings of Sextus have given rise. Some of these differences are of particular philosophic interest because they seem to render the ancient form immune to many of the standard responses that are made to skepticism today.
• .
• In this book, which incorporates a new translation of the Outlines in their entirety, Benson Mates presents Pyrrhonism not as a mere historical curiosity, as has often been done, but as a philosophical position eminently worthy of serious philosophical consideration here and now. His thorough introduction sets the stage by explaining what Pyrrhonism is and what it is not, and by contrasting it in the relevant respects with modern skepticism.
• He gives particular attention to explicating a number of quasi-technical terms that occur frequently in the Outlines and have decisive bearing on the philosophical content. By rendering these terms more accurately and uniformly in his translation, he seeks to make the essential features of Sextus's Pyrrhonism more evident to the reader.
• . The latter part of the book consists of a detailed Commentary, which endeavors to discuss and explain the work, section by section, from a philosophical (as contrasted with a philological) point of view.

Uniform Title

Outlines of Pyrrhonism. English

Alternative Title

Outlines of Pyrrhonism.

Subject

• Skepticism > Early works to 1800

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 321-325) and indexes.

ISBN

0195092120 (alk. paper)

LCCN

94031486

OCLC

• 30972928
• ocm30972928

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries