History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps HoP 073 - Healthy Skepticism - Sextus Empiricus
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Mar 25, 2012 AI Snips
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Sextus: Skeptic Doctor At Century's End
- Sextus Empiricus is both the greatest ancient skeptic and a doctor who lived around the second century AD.
- His writings close the Hellenistic skeptical tradition and aimed to promote ataraxia, freedom from disturbance.
Modes As Tools, Not Dogma
- Pyrrhonian scepticism rejects forming settled beliefs and seeks to suspend judgment rather than assert negative doctrines.
- Sextus frames the 'modes' as tools to raise doubt without claiming a universal doctrine.
Ten Modes: Doubt From Diversity
- The ten modes highlight variation between animals, people, and cultures to undermine confidence in specific beliefs.
- Sextus uses striking examples (insects, tastes, foreign customs) to show almost any belief can be doubted.