Sextus Empiricus and the Scientific Scepticism
ENCEPHALOS 50, 62-74, 2013 SEXTUS EMPIRICUS AND THE SCIENTIFIC SCEPTI- CISM STAVROS J.BALOYANNIS* Summary philosophical books, which survived, but remained for long in obscurity, been rediscovered in the late Renaissance. Two Sextus Empiricus is the most eminent representative of these works on the title, “Adversus Mathematikus”, include of the ancient sceptisism, which is a Post-Classical, Hellenis- large number of strong arguments against the Logicians, the tic philosophy based on the criterion of life, the experience Physicists and the Ethicists. The third and most important of and the analysis of phenomena, aiming to provide a straight the books on the title “Outlines of Pyrrhonism” provides an out- and practical way of life, leading to interior peace and mental line of Pyrrhonian scepticism, incorporating at the same time tranquility, sharply opposed to a purely theoretical pursuit of his own philosophical doctrines. Sextus offers thoroughly a dogmatic philosophy. The term “sceptic” is a derivative of the general overview of scepticism, describing and explaining the noun, skepsis (σκέψις), which means thought, examination, meaning of the sceptical investigation, the value of suspen- inquiry, consideration, meditation and investigation. The scep- sion of judgment and the importance of the sceptical dialectics. tical school was connected for a long period of time with the Sextus insists that the skepticism does not accept or reject any Empirical school of physicians, who based the good medical impression and substantially does not affirm or deny anything. practice on the clinical experience rather than on the theoret- Sextus claims that appearances (φαινόμενα) are the practical ical erudition, dedicating themselves to observation, memory criteria of approaching to the truth and by the continuous inves- and continuous clinical practice.
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