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Information about Sextus Empiricus

Western Philosophy
Ancient philosophy
Name:Sextus Empiricus
Birth:during the 2nd century AD
Death:during the 3rd century AD, possibly in Alexandria or Rome
School/tradition:Skepticism
Influences:Pyrrho, Timon of Phlius, Arcesilaus, Carneades, Aenesidemus, Agrippa
Influenced:Michel de Montaigne, Descartes, David Hume and Hegel


Sextus Empiricus (fl. during the 2nd and possibly the 3rd centuries AD), was a physician and philosopher, and has been variously reported to have lived in Alexandria, Rome, or Athens. His philosophical work is the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman skepticism.

In his medical work, tradition maintains that he belonged to the "empiric" school (see Asclepiades), as reflected by his name. However, at least twice in his writings, Sextus seems to place himself closer to the "methodic" school, as his philosophical views imply.

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Philosophy

Sextus Empiricus advises[1] that we should suspend judgment about virtually all beliefs, that is, we should neither affirm any belief as true nor deny any belief as false. This view is known as Pyrrhonian skepticism, as distinguished from Academic skepticism, as practised by Carneades, which, according to Sextus, denies knowledge altogether. Sextus did not deny the possibility of knowledge. He criticizes the Academic skeptic's claim that nothing is knowable as being an affirmative belief. Instead, Sextus advocates simply giving up belief: that is, suspending judgment about whether or not anything is knowable.[2] Only by suspending judgment can we attain a state of ataraxia (roughly, 'peace of mind'). Sextus did not think such a general suspension of judgment to be impractical, since we may live without any beliefs, acting by habit.

Sextus allowed that we might affirm claims about our experience (e.g., reports about our feelings or sensations). That is, for some claim X that I feel or perceive, it could be true to say "it seems to me now that X." However, he pointed out that this does not imply any objective knowledge of external reality. For while I might know that the honey I eat tastes sweet to me, this is merely a subjective judgment, and as such may not tell me anything true about the honey itself.

Interpretations of Sextus's philosophy along the above lines have been advocated by scholars such as Myles Burnyeat,[3] Jonathan Barnes,[4] and Benson Mates.[5]

Michael Frede, however, defends a different interpretation,[6] according to which Sextus does allow beliefs, so long as they are not derived by reason, philosophy or speculation; a skeptic may, for example, accept common opinions in the skeptic's society. However, the content of such beliefs is purely conventional or subjective. Thus, on this interpretation, the skeptic may well entertain the belief that God does or does not exist or that virtue is good. But he may not believe that such claims are true by nature.

Sextus's Legacy

An influential Latin translation of Sextus's "Outlines" was published by Henricus Stephanus in Geneva in 1562. Petrus and Jacobus Chouet published the Greek text for the first time in 1621. Stephanus did not publish it with his Latin translation either in 1562 or in 1569, nor was it published in the reprint of the latter in 1619. Sextus's "Outlines" were widely read in Europe during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and had a profound impact on Michel de Montaigne, David Hume, and Hegel, among many others. Another source for the circulation of Sextus's ideas was Bayle's Dictionary. The legacy of Pyrrhonism is described in Richard Popkin's The History of Skepticism from Erasmus to Descartes and High Road to Pyrrhonism. The transmission of Sextus's manuscripts through antiquity and the middle age is reconstructed by Luciano Floridi's Sextus Empiricus, The Recovery and Transmission of Pyrrhonism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Notes

1. ^ The extent to which a skeptic can hold beliefs as well as the kinds of beliefs a skeptic can have is a matter of scholarly dispute.
2. ^ See PH I.3, I.8, I.198; cf. J. Barnes, "Introduction", xix ff., in Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism. Julia Annas and Jonathan Barnes (transl.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
3. ^ Burnyeat, M., "Can The Sceptic Live His Scepticism" in Myles Burnyeat and Michael Frede (ed.), The Original Sceptics: A Controversy (Hackett, 1997): 25-57. Cf. Burnyeat, M., "The Sceptic in His Place and Time", ibid., 92-126.
4. ^ Barnes, J., "The Beliefs of a Pyrrhonist" in Myles Burnyeat and Michael Frede (ed.), The Original Sceptics: A Controversy (Hackett, 1997): 58-91.
5. ^ Mates, B. The Skeptic Way (Oxford UP, 1996).
6. ^ Frede, M., "The Sceptic's Beliefs" in Myles Burnyeat and Michael Frede (ed.), The Original Sceptics: A Controversy (Hackett, 1997): 1-24. Cf. Frede, M., "The Sceptic's Two Kinds of Assent and the Question of the Possibility of Knowledge", ibid., 127-152.

References

Translations

  • Excerpts from the "Outlines of Pyrrhonism"
  • Sextus Empiricus, Against the Grammarians (Adversos Mathematicos I). David Blank (trans.) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998). ISBN 0-19-824470-3.
  • Sextus Empiricus, Against the Ethicists: (Adversus Mathematicos XI). Richard Bett (trans.) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000). ISBN 0-19-825097-5
  • Sextus Empiricus, Against the Logicians. Richard Bett (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). ISBN 0-521-53195-0
  • Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism. Julia Annas and Jonathan Barnes (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed. 2000). ISBN 0-521-77809-3
  • Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism. R.G. Bury (trans.) (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1990). ISBN 0-87975-597-0
  • Sextus Empiricus, Selections from the Major Writings on Skepticism Man and God. Sanford G. Etheridge (trans.) (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1985). ISBN 0-87220-006-X
  • Sextus Empiricus, Sextus Empiricus I: Outlines of Pyrrhonism. R.G. Bury (trans.) (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1933/2000). ISBN 0-674-99301-2
  • Sextus Empiricus, Sextus Empiricus II: Against the Logicians. R.G. Bury (trans.) (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935/1997). ISBN 0-674-99321-7
  • Sextus Empiricus, Sextus Empiricus III: Against the Physicists, Against The Ethicists. R.G. Bury (trans.) (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1936/1997). ISBN 0-674-99344-6
  • Sextus Empiricus, Sextus Empiricus IV: Against the Professors. R.G. Bury (trans.) (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1949/2000). ISBN 0-674-99420-5
  • Sextus Empiricus, The Skeptic Way: Sextus Empiricus's Outlines of Pyrrhonism. Benson Mates (trans.) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). ISBN 0-19-509213-9

Scholarly works

  • Annas, Julia and Barnes, Jonathan, The Modes of Scepticism: Ancient Texts and Modern Interpretations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985). ISBN 0-521-27644-6
  • Bett, Richard, Pyrrho, his antecedents, and his legacy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). ISBN 0-19-925661-6
  • Brennan, Tad, Ethics and Epistemology in Sextus Empiricus (London: Routledge, 1999). ISBN 0815336594
  • Brochard, Les Sceptiques grecs (1887)
  • Burnyeat, Myles & Frede, Michael The Original Sceptics: A Controversy (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997). ISBN 0-87220-347-6
  • Hankinson, R.J., The Skeptics (London: Routledge, 1998). ISBN 0-415-18446-0
  • Jourdain, Sextus Empiricus (Paris, 1858)
  • Mates, Benson. The Skeptic Way: Sextus Empiricus's Outlines of Pyrrhonism. (New York: OUP, 1996).
  • Pappenheim, Lebensverholtnisse des Sextus Empiricus (Berlin, 1875)
  • Popkin, Richard, The History of Scepticism: From Savonarola to Bayle (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). ISBN 0-19-510768-3
This page lists some links to ancient philosophy. In Europe, the spread of Christianity through the Roman world marked the end of Hellenistic philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of Medieval philosophy.
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skepticism or scepticism (Greek: skeptomai, to look about, to consider; see also spelling differences) refers to
  1. an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object,

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Pyrrho (ca. 360 BC - ca. 270 BC), a Greek philosopher of classical antiquity, is credited as being the first Skeptic philosopher, and the inspiration for the school known as Pyrrhonism founded by Aenesidemus in the 1st century BC.
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Timon, also known as Timon of Phlius (ca. 320-230 BC), was a Greek sceptic philosopher and satirical poet, a pupil of Stilpo the Megarian and Pyrrho of Elis.

Life and writings


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Arcesilaus

Born c.316
Pitane, Aeolis, Greece
Died c.241
Athens, Greece

Arcesilaus (Ἀρκεσίλαος) (ca. 316-ca.
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Carneades (c. 214 – 129 BC) was a radical skeptic born in Cyrene and the first of the philosophers to pronounce the failure of metaphysicians who endeavored to discover rational meanings in religious beliefs.
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Aenesidemus (Ancient Greek: Αἰνησίδημος, Ainêsidemos) was a Greek sceptical philosopher, born in Knossos on the island of Crete.
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Agrippa was a Sceptic philosopher who probably lived towards the end of the 1st century A.D. He is regarded as the author of the five tropes which are purported to establish the impossibility of certain knowledge.
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Montaigne (also known as Michel Eyquem de Montaigne) (IPA pronunciation: [miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ
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René Descartes (French IPA: [ʁə'ne de'kaʁt]) (March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650), also known as Renatus Cartesius
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David Hume (April 26, 1711 – August 25, 1776)[1] was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian. He is considered one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment.
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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (IPA: [ˈgeɔʁk ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈheːgəl]
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The 2nd century is the period from 101 to 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period
..... Click the link for more information.
The 3rd century is the period from 201 to 300 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era.

Overview

After the death of Commodus in the previous century the Roman Empire was plunged into a civil war.
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physician applies to a person who practices some type of medicine. Such medical practitioners are concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis and treatment of disease and injury, through both an area of knowledge
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Philosophy is the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic).
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Comune di Roma

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Nickname: "The Eternal City"
Motto: "Senatus Populusque Romanus" (SPQR)   (Latin)
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Location

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Time zone: EET/EEST (UTC+2/3)
Elevation (min-max): 70 - 338 m (0 - 0 ft)
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skepticism or scepticism (Greek: skeptomai, to look about, to consider; see also spelling differences) refers to
  1. an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object,

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Asclepiades (c. 124 or 129 – 40 BC) was a Greek physician born at Prusa of Bithynia in Asia Minor and flourished at Rome, where he established Greek medicine near the end of the 2nd century BCE.
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Pyrrhonism, or Pyrrhonian skepticism, was a school of skepticism founded by Aenesidemus in the first century BC and recorded by Sextus Empiricus in the late 2nd century or early 3rd century AD. It was named after Pyrrho, a philosopher who lived from c. 360 to c.
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Carneades (c. 214 – 129 BC) was a radical skeptic born in Cyrene and the first of the philosophers to pronounce the failure of metaphysicians who endeavored to discover rational meanings in religious beliefs.
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Ataraxia (Ἀταραξία) is a Greek term used by Pyrrho and Epicurus for freedom from worry or any other preoccupation, and for Epicurus to achieve Hêdonê, the great pleasure.
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Myles Fredric Burnyeat CBE (born 1939) is an English classicist and philosopher.

Educated at Bryanston School and King’s College, Cambridge, Burnyeat was a student of Bernard Williams at University College London.
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Jonathan Barnes (born 1942) is a British philosopher, translator and historian of ancient philosophy. He taught for 25 years at Oxford University before moving to the University of Geneva. He now teaches at the University of Paris- Sorbonne in France.
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