SKEPTICISM Also available from Bloomsbury The Bloomsbury Companion to Analytic Philosophy, edited by Barry Dainton and Howard Robinson The Bloomsbury Companion to Epistemology, edited by Andrew Cullison A Critical Introduction to Skepticism, Allan Hazlett SKEPTICISM FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE PRESENT Edited by Diego E. Machuca and Baron Reed Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc LONDON • OXFORD • NEW YORK • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2018 © Diego Machuca and Baron Reed, 2018 Diego Machuca and Baron Reed have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Editors of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the editors. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4725-0771-6 ePDF: 978-1-4725-1436-3 ePub: 978-1-4725-1149-2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Machuca, Diego E., editor. Title: Skepticism: from antiquity to the present / [edited by] Diego Machuca and Baron Reed. Description: New York : Bloomsbury, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017030623 (print) | LCCN 2017043043 (ebook) | ISBN 9781472511492 (ePub) | ISBN 9781472514363 (ePDF) | ISBN 9781472507716 (hardback) Subjects: LCSH: Skepticism–History. Classification: LCC B837 (ebook) | LCC B837 .S53 2018 (print) | DDC 149/.7309–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017030623 Cover design: Clare Turner Cover image © Bridgeman Images Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India CONTENTS LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS IX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS XI General Introduction xiii Baron Reed and Diego E. Machuca Part I: Ancient Skepticism 1 Introduction Diego E. Machuca 3 1 The Cyrenaics and Skepticism 14 Richard Bett 2 Pyrrho and Timon 24 Casey Perin 3 Arcesilaus 36 Anna Maria Ioppolo 4 Carneades 51 Harald Thorsrud 5 Aenesidemus 67 Luca Castagnoli 6 Philo of Larissa 81 Harold Tarrant 7 Cicero 93 J. P. F. Wynne 8 Menodotus and Medical Empiricism 102 James Allen 9 Middle Platonism and Skepticism: Plutarch and Favorinus 114 Carlos Lévy vi CONTENTS 10 Sextus Empiricus 125 Tad Brennan and Cliff Roberts 11 Skepticism in Classical Indian Philosophy 145 Matthew R. Dasti Part II: Medieval and Renaissance Skepticism 163 Introduction Diego E. Machuca 165 12 Augustine and Skepticism 175 Stéphane Marchand 13 John of Salisbury’s Skepticism 186 David Bloch 14 Skepticism in Classical Islam: The Case of Ghazali 196 Paul L. Heck 15 Nicholas of Autrecourt and John Buridan on Skepticism 209 Christophe Grellard 16 Divine Deception 222 Henrik Lagerlund 17 Michel de Montaigne 232 Gianni Paganini 18 Pierre Charron 247 Gianni Paganini 19 Francisco Sanchez: A Renaissance Pyrrhonist against Aristotelian Dogmatism 260 Damian Caluori Part III: Modern Skepticism 271 Introduction Baron Reed 273 20 François de La Mothe Le Vayer 283 Sylvia Giocanti 21 Gassendi on Skepticism 295 Antonia LoLordo 22 Descartes and the Force of Skepticism 306 David Cunning CONTENTS vii 23 Varieties of Modern Academic Skepticism: Pierre-Daniel Huet and Simon Foucher 320 Michael W. Hickson 24 Spinoza on Skepticism 342 Alison Peterman 25 Pierre Bayle 355 John Christian Laursen 26 Berkeley and Skepticism 369 Margaret Atherton 27 A Pyrrhonian Interpretation of Hume on Assent 380 Donald L. M. Baxter 28 Thomas Reid’s Engagement with Skeptics and Skepticism 395 René van Woudenberg 29 Johann Georg Hamann 407 Gwen Griffith-Dickson 30 Kant and External World Skepticism 419 Georges Dicker 31 Hegel: Philosophy as a Kind of Skepticism 430 Dietmar H. Heidemann 32 Friedrich Nietzsche 442 Andreas Urs Sommer 33 Russell’s Logical Construction of the External World 454 Peter J. Graham 34 Moore and Mooreanism 467 Annalisa Coliva 35 Wittgenstein and Skepticism: Illusory Doubts 481 Michael Williams 36 Richard Popkin on the History of Skepticism 506 José R. Maia Neto Part IV: Contemporary Skepticism 521 Introduction Baron Reed 523 viii CONTENTS 37 Regress Arguments and Skepticism 535 Richard Fumerton 38 The Problem of the Criterion 550 Andrew D. Cling 39 Neo-Pyrrhonism 565 Markus Lammenranta 40 Disagreement and Skepticism 581 Bryan Frances 41 Skepticism and the Internalism-Externalism Debate 592 Matthias Steup 42 Skepticism and Fallibilism 609 Stephen Hetherington 43 Skepticism and Contextualism 620 Michael Blome-Tillmann 44 External World Skepticism 634 Ram Neta 45 Disjunctivism and Skepticism 652 Duncan Pritchard and Chris Ranalli 46 Inductive Skepticism: A Functional Investigation 668 Ruth Weintraub 47 Skepticism about A Priori Knowledge 685 Otávio Bueno 48 Skepticism about Other Minds 700 Anil Gomes 49 Moral Skepticism 714 Richard Joyce 50 Religious Skepticism 727 J. L. Schellenberg NAME INDEX 739 SUBJECT INDEX 742 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS James Allen, University of Toronto, Canada Margaret Atherton, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, United States Donald L. M. Baxter, University of Connecticut, United States Richard Bett, Johns Hopkins University, United States David Bloch, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Michael Blome-Tillmann, McGill University, Canada Tad Brennan, Cornell University, United States Otávio Bueno, University of Miami, United States Damian Caluori, Trinity University, United States Luca Castagnoli, University of Oxford, United Kingdom Andrew Cling, University of Alabama in Huntsville, United States Annalisa Coliva, University of California, Irvine, United States David Cunning, University of Iowa, United States Matthew Dasti, Bridgewater State University, United States Georges Dicker, SUNY College at Brockport, United States Bryan Frances, University of Tartu, Estonia Richard Fumerton, University of Iowa, United States Sylvia Giocanti, Université de Toulouse Le Mirail, France Anil Gomes, University of Oxford, United Kingdom Peter Graham, University of California, Riverside, United States Christophe Grellard, EPHE, PSL Research University, France Gwen Griffith-Dickson, King’s College London, United Kingdom Paul Heck, Georgetown University, United States Stephen Hetherington, University of New South Wales, Australia Dietmar Heidemann, Université du Luxembourg, Luxembourg Michael Hickson, Trent University, Canada Anna Maria Ioppolo, Sapienza - Università di Roma, Italy Richard Joyce, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Henrik Lagerlund, Stockholm University, Sweden x LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Markus Lammenranta, University of Helsinki, Finland John Christian Laursen, University of California, Riverside, United States Carlos Lévy, Université Paris-Sorbonne, France Antonia LoLordo, University of Virginia, United States Diego E. Machuca, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina José Raimundo Maia Neto, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil Stéphane Marchand, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France Ram Neta, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States Gianni Paganini, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Italy Casey Perin, University of California, Irvine, United States Alison Peterman, University of Rochester, United States Duncan Pritchard, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom Baron Reed, Northwestern University, United States Cliff Roberts, University of Victoria, Canada J. L. Schellenberg, Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada Matthias Steup, University of Colorado Boulder, United States Harold Tarrant, The University of Newcastle, Australia Harald Thorsrud, Agnes Scott College, United States Andreas Urs Sommer, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany Ruth Weintraub, Tel Aviv University, Israel Michael Williams, Johns Hopkins University, United States René van Woudenberg, VU University, The Netherlands J. P. F. Wynne, Northwestern University, United States LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 3D Berkeley, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous Acad. Cicero, Academica Ad Att. Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum Adv. Col. Plutarch, Adversus Colotem AM Sextus Empiricus, Adversus Mathematicos Apol. Plato, Apology of Socrates AT Œuvres de Descartes, 11 vols., edited by C. Adam & P. Tannery. Paris: Vrin, 1996. Bibl. Photius, Bibliotheca C. Acad. Augustine, Contra Academicos Chronic. Can. Eusebius, Chronicus Canon Conf. Augustine, Confessiones CSM The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, vols. 1 & 2, edited by J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984/5. CSMK The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, vol. 3, edited by J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, D. Murdoch, and A. Kenny. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. De Alex. fort. Plutarch, De Alexandri Magni Fortuna Comp. med. gen. Galen, De compositione medicamentorum per genera De E Plutarch, De E apud Delphos De Or. Cicero, De Oratore De Prim. Frig. Plutarch, De Primo Frigido De rep. Cicero, De re publica De sect. ingred. Galen, De sectis ingredientibus De ut. cred. Augustine, De utilitate credendi Div. Cicero,