Sextus Empiricus and Ancient Physics

Sextus Empiricus and Ancient Physics

Author: Keimpe Algra

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-07-22

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 1107069246

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The two books of Sextus Empiricus' Against the Physicists have not received much attention in their own right, as sustained and methodical specimens of sceptical philosophy. This volume redresses the balance by offering a series of in-depth studies on them, focusing in particular on their overall argumentative structure and on the various ways in which their formal features relate to their contents, showing how Sextus' procedures vary from one section to the other, and throwing new light on the way he was using his sources. It follows Sextus' own division of these two books into nine successive topics, namely god, cause, wholes and parts, body, place, motion, time, number, coming-to-be and passing-away. These nine chapters are preceded by an introduction which discusses a number of general features of Sextus' scepticism and links the conclusions of this volume to some recent discussions on the scope of ancient scepticism.


Sextus Empiricus and Ancient Physics

Sextus Empiricus and Ancient Physics

Author: Keimpe Algra

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 9781316332887

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A running philosophical commentary to the two books Against the Physicists by the second-century sceptic philosopher Sextus Empiricus.


How to Keep an Open Mind

How to Keep an Open Mind

Author: Sextus Empiricus

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-04-13

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 069120604X

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How ancient skepticism can help you attain tranquility by learning to suspend judgment Along with Stoicism and Epicureanism, Skepticism is one of the three major schools of ancient Greek philosophy that claim to offer a way of living as well as thinking. How to Keep an Open Mind provides an unmatched introduction to skepticism by presenting a fresh, modern translation of key passages from the writings of Sextus Empiricus, the only Greek skeptic whose works have survived. While content in daily life to go along with things as they appear to be, Sextus advocated—and provided a set of techniques to achieve—a radical suspension of judgment about the way things really are, believing that such nonjudging can be useful for challenging the unfounded dogmatism of others and may help one achieve a state of calm and tranquility. In an introduction, Richard Bett makes the case that the most important lesson we can draw from Sextus’s brand of skepticism today may be an ability to see what can be said on the other side of any issue, leading to a greater open-mindedness. Complete with the original Greek on facing pages, How to Keep an Open Mind offers a compelling antidote to the closed-minded dogmatism of today’s polarized world.


Sextus Empiricus Against the Arithmeticians

Sextus Empiricus Against the Arithmeticians

Author: Lorenzo Corti

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2023-12-21

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 9004679502

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Arithmetic deals with numbers: but what is the nature of their existence, of their parts, and of their relationship with countable items? These questions nourished a lively debate between the Platonico-Pythagorean tradition (trying to answer them) and the Pyrrhonian tradition (trying to show that these answers were unsatisfactory). The debate lies at the heart of Sextus Empiricus’ Against the Arithmeticians. The present book aims at facing the remarkable historical and philosophical questions raised by Sextus’ treatise by offering a new translation of it and the first dedicated commentary to it.


How to Be a Pyrrhonist

How to Be a Pyrrhonist

Author: Richard Bett

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-03-21

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1108471072

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Explores what it was like to argue and to live as a practitioner of Pyrrhonist skepticism.


Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Scepticism

Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Scepticism

Author: Sextus Empiricus

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2000-07-20

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780521778091

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Outlines of Scepticism, by the Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus, is a work of major importance for the history of Greek philosophy. It is the fullest extant account of ancient scepticism, and it is also one of our most copious sources of information about the other Hellenistic philosophies. Its first part contains an elaborate exposition of the Pyrrhonian variety of scepticism; its second and third parts are critical and destructive, arguing against 'dogmatism' in logic, epistemology, science and ethics - an approach that revolutionized the study of philosophy when Sextus' works were rediscovered and published in the sixteenth century. This volume presents the accurate and readable translation which was first published in 1994, together with a substantial new historical and philosophical introduction by Jonathan Barnes.


Against the Grammarians (Adversus Mathematicos I)

Against the Grammarians (Adversus Mathematicos I)

Author: Sextus (Empiricus.)

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 9780198244707

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Blank presents a new translation into clear modern English of a key treatise by one of the greatest of ancient philosophers, together with the first ever commentary on this work. Sextus Empiricus's Against the Grammarians is a polemical attack on ancient Greek ideas about grammar, and provides one of the best examples of sustained Sceptical reasoning.


Space in Hellenistic Philosophy

Space in Hellenistic Philosophy

Author: Graziano Ranocchia

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2014-10-29

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 3110386267

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Historically speaking, the majority of efforts in the study of ancient Greek physics have traditionally been devoted either to the analysis of the surviving evidence concerning Presocratic philosophers or to the systematic examination of the Platonic and the Aristotelian oeuvre. The aim of this volume is to discuss the notion of space by focusing on the most representative exponents of the Hellenistic schools and to explore the role played by spatial concepts in both coeval and later authors who, without specifically thematising these concepts, made use of them in a theoretically original way. To this purpose, renowned scholars investigate the philosophical and historical significance of the different conceptions of space endorsed by various thinkers ranging from the end of the Classical period to the middle Imperial age. Thus, the volume brings to light the problematical character of the ancient reflection on this topic.


Sextus Empiricus’ Neo-Pyrrhonism

Sextus Empiricus’ Neo-Pyrrhonism

Author: Plínio Junqueira Smith

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-03-01

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 3030945189

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This book offers a comprehensive interpretation of Sextus Empiricus based on his own view of what he calls the distinctive character of skepticism. It focuses on basic topics highlighted by this ancient philosopher concerning Pyrrhonism, a kind of skepticism named for Pyrrho: its concept, its principles, its reason, its criteria, its goals. In the first part, the author traces distinct phases in the life and philosophical development of a talented person, from the pre-philosophical phase where philosophy was perceived as the solution to life's disturbing anomalies, through his initial philosophical investigation in order to find truth where the basic experience is that of a huge disagreement between philosophers, to the final phase where he finally recognises that his experience is similar to that of the skeptical school and adheres to skepticism. The second part is devoted to explain the nature of his skepticism. It presents an original interpretation, for it claims that the central role in Sextus’ Neo-Pyrrhonism is played by a skeptical logos, a rationale or way of reasoning. This is what unifies and articulates the skeptical orientation. The skeptic goes on investigating truth, but in a new condition, for he is now tranquil, and he has a skeptical method of his own. He has also acquired a special ability in order to balance both sides of an opposition, which involves a number of different skills. Finally, the author examines the skeptical life generated by this philosophical experience where he lives a life without opinions and dogmas; it is an engaged life, deeply concerned with our everyday actions and values. Readers will gain a deeper insight into the philosophy of Pyrrhonism as presented by Sextus Empiricus, as well as understand the meaning of anomalía, zétesis, epokhé, ataraxía, and other important ideas of this philosophy.