6AANA042 Topics in Greek Philosophy Ancient Scepticism Syllabus Academic year 2014/15 Basic information Credits: 15 Module Tutor: Shaul Tor Office: B12 North Wing Consultation time: Wednesdays 15:00-16:00, Thursdays 13:00-14:00, Room B12, North Wing Semester: Autumn Lecture time and venue: Fridays 16:00-18:00 Strand 2A Chesham Building Module description (plus aims and objectives) We are used to encounter the sceptic as a hypothetical adversary to be overcome. The ancient world, however, presents us with a rich variety of philosophers who advanced their scepticism as a viable and, indeed, attractive way of life, as well as others who developed sophisticated critical responses to such scepticisms. In this module, we will explore these varieties of sceptical and anti-sceptical thought in the presocratic philosophers Xenophanes and Democritus, the towering Classical figures of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, the Hellenistic schools of Academic and Pyrrhonian scepticism and, finally, in the anti-sceptical treatises of Augustine and Al-Ghazali. Among many other questions, we will ask whether the sceptic s life can indeed be viable and attractive, how we should understand the nature and limits of justification, what strategies of argumentation the ancient sceptics and anti-sceptics developed, and how the later prominence of monotheistic theologies changed the terms of the debate. Assessment methods and deadlines Formative assessment: A seminar presentation Summative assessment: 2 x 2,500-word essays o Due: May 14th 2015 at 4pm
Outline of lecture topics (plus suggested readings. Note: the Primary readings will be distributed in advance) Week One: Forebears: Xenophanes and Democritus Primary (P): o J.H. Lesher, Xenophanes of Colophon (Toronto, 1992), pp. 10-43 (facing translation of the fragments with the English on odd pages; note esp. fragments 15-16, 18, 34-36, 38). o C.C.W. Taylor, The Atomists: Leucippus and Democritus (Toronto, 1999), pp. 8-13 (the fragments on epistemology, with facing English translation on odd pages), pp. 142-144 (no. 179a-d: the ancient sources for the fragments on epistemology). Secondary (S): o M.K. Lee, Antecedents in early Greek philosophy, in R. Bett (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism (Cambridge, 2010), pp. 13-35. (A helpful introduction to many of the texts and issues which we will explore in weeks 1-4.) Some further suggested reading (F): o J. Warren, Presocratics (Stockfield, 2007), chh. 3 (on Xenophanes) and 9 (on Democritus and Leucippus). (Helpful general introductions to Xenophanes and Democritus.) o J.H. Lesher, Xenophanes of Colophon (Toronto, 1992), pp. 159-169 ( Commentary on Fragment 34 ). o M.-K. Lee, Epistemology after Protagoras: Responses to Relativism in Plato, Aristotle, and Democritus (Oxford, 2005), chh. 8 and 9 (on Democritus). Week Two: Socrates and scepticism o Plato, Apology Recommended translation: G.M.A. Grube, in J.M. Cooper (ed.), Plato: Complete Works (Indianapolis/Cambridge, 1997), 17-36. o R. Bett, Socrates and skepticism, in S. Ahbel-Rappe and R. Kamtekar (eds.), A Companion to Socrates (Oxford, 2006), pp. 298 311. o C. Shields, Socrates among the skeptics, in P.A. Vander Waerdt (ed.), The Socratic Movement (Ithaca/London, 1994), pp. 341 366. o A.A. Long, Socrates in Hellenistic philosophy, Classical Quarterly 38 (1988), 150-171. Week Three: Plato and scepticism o Plato, Meno 80d5-86c2. Recommended translation: G.M.A. Grube, in J.M. Cooper (ed.), Plato: Complete Works (Indianapolis/Cambridge, 1997), pp. 880-886. o Plato, Theaetetus 151e-172b. Recommended translation: M.J. Levett, rev. M.F. Burnyeat, in J.M. Cooper (ed.), Plato: Complete Works (Indianapolis/Cambridge, 1997), pp. 168-191. o J. Annas, Plato the sceptic, in P.A. Vander Waerdt (ed.), The Socratic Movement (Ithaca/London, 1994), pp. 309 40. o D. Scott, Plato s Meno (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 75-91 (also, pp. 98-125). o M.K. Lee, Epistemology after Protagoras: Responses to Relativism in Plato, Aristotle, and Democritus (Oxford, 2005), pp. 30-57. o M.M. McCabe on knowledge in Plato, episode 23 of Peter Adamson s History of Philosophy Without any Gaps (http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/).
Outline of lecture topics (plus suggested readings) Week Four: Aristotle and scepticism o Aristotle, Metaphysics 4 (Gamma) 3-6 (1005 a 19-1011 b 22). Recommended translation: C. Kirwan (trans. and comm.), Aristotle s Metaphysics, books Γ, Δ, and Γ (Oxford, 1971), pp. 6-23. o Aristotle, Posterior Analytics 1.1-3 (71 a 1-73 a 20); 2.19 (99 b 15-100 b 17). Recommended translation: J. Barnes (trans. and comm.), Aristotle: Posterior Analytics 2 (Oxford, 1994), pp. 1-6, 72-74. o A.A. Long, Aristotle and the history of Greek scepticism, in A.A. Long (ed.), From Epicurus to Epictetus: Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (Oxford, 2006), 43-69. o J. Barnes, An Aristotelian way with scepticism, in M. Matthen (ed.), Aristotle Today (Edmonton, 1987), pp. 51 76. o A. Code, Aristotle and the history of skepticism, in A. Nightingale and D.N. Sedley (eds.), Ancient Models of Mind (Cambridge, 2010), pp. 97-109. Week Five: The sceptical Academy o A.A. Long and D.N. Sedley, The Hellenistic Philosophers (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 241-253, 438-467. o H. Thorsrud, Arcesilaus and Carneades, in R. Bett (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism (Cambridge, 2010), pp. 58-80. o J. Cooper, Arcesilaus: Socratic and sceptic, in his Knowledge, Nature, and the Good: Essays on Ancient Philosophy (Princeton, 2004), pp. 81 103. o S. Obdrzalek, Living in doubt: Carneades pithanon reconsidered, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 31 (2006), pp. 243 279. Week Six: Early Pyrrhonism o A.A. Long and D.N. Sedley, The Hellenistic Philosophers (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 13-24; 468-488. o S.H. Svavarsson, Pyrrho and early Pyrrhonism, in R. Bett (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism (Cambridge, 2010), pp. 36-57. o R.J. Hankinson, Aenesidemus and the rebirth of Pyrrhonism, in R. Bett (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism (Cambridge, 2010), pp. 105-119. o R. Bett, Pyrrho, his Antecedents, and his Legacy (Oxford, 2000). Week Seven: Pyrrhonism in Sextus Empiricus I: belief, action and tranquillity o J. Annas and J. Barnes (eds. and trans.), Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Scepticism (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 3-11, 46-53 (= book 1, sections 1-30, 187-209). o C. Perin, Scepticism and belief, in R. Bett (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism (Cambridge, 2010), 145-164. o H. Thorsrud, Is the examined life worth living? A Pyrrhonian alternative, Apeiron 36 (2003),
Outline of lecture topics (plus suggested readings) o M.F. Burnyeat, Can the sceptic live his scepticism?, in M.F. Burnyeat and M. Frede (eds.), The Original Sceptics: A Controversy (Indianapolis, 1997), 25-57. o M. Frede, The sceptic s beliefs, in M.F. Burnyeat and M. Frede (eds.), The Original Sceptics: A Controversy (Indianapolis, 1997), 1-24. Week Eight: Pyrrhonism in Sextus Empiricus II: the Modes of scepticism o J. Annas and J. Barnes (eds. and trans.), Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Scepticism (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 11-46 (= book 1, sections 31-186). o G. Striker, The ten Tropes of Aenesidemus, in M.F. Burnyeat (ed.), The Skeptical Tradition (Berkeley, 1983), pp. 95-115. o P. Woodruff, The Pyrrhonian Modes, in R. Bett (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism (Cambridge, 2010), pp. 208-231. o J. Barnes, The Toils of Scepticism (Cambridge, 1990). o J. Annas and J. Barnes, The Modes of Scepticism (Cambridge, 1985). Week Nine: Pyrrhonism in action: the arguments for and against god o B. Inwood and L. Gerson (eds. and trans.), Hellenistic Philosophy: Introductory Readings 2 (Indianapolis, 1997), pp. 362-373 (= Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism, book 3, sections 2-12, and excerpts from Against the Mathematicians, book 9, sections 13-193). o A.A. Long, Scepticism about gods in his From Epicurus to Epictetus: Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (Oxford, 2006), pp. 114 27. o H. Thorsrud, Sextus Empiricus on skeptical piety, in D.E. Machuca, New Essays on Ancient Pyrrhonism (Leiden/Boston, 2011), pp. 91-111. o S. Knuuttila and J. Sihvola, Ancient scepticism and philosophy of religion, in J. Sihvola (ed.), Ancient Scepticisms and the Sceptical Tradition, Acta Philosophica Fennica, vol. 66 (Helsinki, 2000), pp. 125 44. Week Ten: Christian and Islamic perspectives: Augustine and Al-Ghazali o Excerpts from Augustine s Against the Academicians book 3 and a selection of other passages from Augustine, taken from P. King (ed. and trans.), Augustine: Against the Academicians and The Teacher (Indianapolis, 1995). o Al-Ghazali, The Rescuer from Error, in Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings, M. A. Khalidi (ed. and trans.) (Cambridge, 2005), pp. 59-64 (down to the end of [88] ), pp. 76-86 (from [130] down to the end of [150] ). o G. O'Daly, The response to skepticism and mechanisms of cognition, in E. Stump and N. Kretzmann (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Augustine (Cambridge, 2001), pp. 159-164. o M.A. Khalidi (ed. and trans.), Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings (Cambridge, 2005), pp. xxiv-xxix. o S. Menn, The Discourse on the Method and the tradition of intellectual autobiography, in J. Miller and B. Inwood (eds.), Hellenistic and Early Modern Philosophy (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 141-91. (Especially for Al-Ghazali.) o C. Kirwan, Augustine against the skeptics, in M.F. Burnyeat (ed.), The Skeptical Tradition (Berkeley, 1983), pp. 205 223.
Suggested essay questions Why does Xenophanes think that humans could not attain knowledge about some matters? Are all beliefs about those matters of equal weight in his view? What was the place of sensory evidence in Democritus epistemology? Why did the Academic sceptics claim Socrates as their philosophical ancestor? How farfetched was this claim? Are there any sceptical aspects to Plato s philosophical methodology? What are the continuities and the discontinuities between Protagorean relativism, as represented in Plato s Theaetetus, and Pyrrhonian scepticism? In what sense, if any, can we argue for the Principle of Non-Contradiction according to Aristotle? Aristotle maintains that not all knowledge is demonstrative. Does this view offer us a viable way of answering a sceptic who continues to demand ad infinitum that we justify our premisses? Discuss critically Plato s and/or Aristotle s responses to Meno s paradox. Expound and assess Arcesilaus notion of the reasonable (to eulogon) and/or Carneades notion of the credible (to pithanon). Is there any sense in which Pyrrho was a Pyrrhonist? Can the sceptic live his scepticism? Discuss with reference to Sextus and/or the Academic sceptics. How plausible is the idea that, by suspending judgement on whether anything is good or bad by nature, we will live a more tranquil life? Expound and assess Sextus fourfold criterion of action. What are the fundamental argumentative strategies of the Ten modes? Either How strong are the arguments against the gods in Sextus? Or Which is the strongest argument against the gods in Sextus and why? Monotheistic responses to scepticism prescribe above all a revised understanding of the relation between reasoning and authority. Discuss critically in relation to Augustine and/or Al-Ghazali. Did Augustine refute the Academicians? What brought on Al-Ghazali s sceptical crisis? How did he overcome it?
Suggested additional readings NOTE: the following list is meant to offer orientation and guidance for further possible avenues of research. The idea is not at all that students should strive to work through all or a large quantity of it! Translations of Sextus and Cicero s Academica: J. Annas and J. Barnes (eds. and trans.), Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Scepticism (Cambridge, 2000). R. Bett (trans.), Sextus Empiricus: Against the Logicians (Cambridge, 2005). (= Against the Mathematicians (M) 7-8) R. Bett (trans.), Sextus Empiricus: Against the Physicists (Cambridge, 2012). (= M 9-10) R. Bett (trans. and comm.), Sextus Empiricus: Against the Ethicists (Oxford, 1997). (= M 11) D.L. Blank, Sextus Empiricus: Against the Grammarians (Oxford, 1998). (= M 1) C. Brittain (trans. and comm.), Cicero: On Academic Scepticism (Indianapolis/Cambridge, 2006). For the Greek (but beware the generally dated and often unreliable translation), the most accessible complete edition of Sextus is still: R.G. Bury, Sextus Empiricus, 4 vols. (Cambridge, MA, 1933 49). (vol. 1 = Outlines of Pyrrhonism; vol. 2 = M 7-8; vol. 3 = M 9-11; vol. 4 = M 1-6.) Collections and monographs: R. Bett (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism (Cambridge, 2010). J. Sihvola (ed.), Ancient Scepticisms and the Sceptical Tradition, Acta Philosophica Fennica, vol. 66 (Helsinki, 2000). M.F. Burnyeat (ed.), The Skeptical Tradition (Berkeley/Los Angeles/ London, 1983). o Note esp. D.N. Sedley, The motivation of Greek skepticism, pp. 9-29. M. Schofield, M.F. Burnyeat and J. Barnes (eds.), Doubt and Dogmatism: Studies in Hellenistic Epistemology (Oxford, 1980). K. Algra, J. Barnes, J. Mansfeld and M. Schofield (eds.), The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy (Cambridge, 1999). H. Thorsrud, Ancient Scepticism (Berkeley, 2009). R. Sharples, Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics: An Introduction to Hellenistic Philosophy (London/New York, 1996). NOTE: for brief and generally very helpful introductions and orientations, see the relevant entries in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/): e.g. Ancient Skepticism, Medieval Skepticism, Xenophanes, Democritus, Aristotle on Non-contradiction, Pyrrho, Timon of Phlius, Arcesilaus, Carneades, etc. Some comparative essays on ancient and later scepticism: D.C. Ainslie, Hume s scepticism and ancient scepticisms, in J. Miller and B. Inwood (eds.), Hellenistic and Early Modern Philosophy (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 251-273. J. Annas, Scepticism, old and new, in M. Frede and G. Striker (eds.), Rationality in Greek Thought (Oxford, 1996), pp. 239 54. L. Floridi, The Rediscovery and posthumous influence of scepticism, in Bett 2010 (above), pp. 267-287. N.J. Maia, The Christianization of Pyrrhonism: Scepticism and Faith in Pascal, Kierkegaard and Shestov (Dordrecht/London, 1995). D. Pritchard, Wittgensteinian Pyrrhonism, in D.E. Machuca (ed.), Pyrrhonism in Ancient, Modern, and Contemporary Philosophy (Dordrecht, 2011), pp. 193-202. S. Tor, Sextus and Wittgenstein on the end of justification, International Journal for the Study of Skepticism 4.2 (2014), pp. 81-108. M. Williams, Descartes transformation of the sceptical tradition, in Bett 2010 (above), pp. 288-313. (Especially recommended.)