SCEPTICAL ARGUMENTATION and PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY: By
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SCEPTICAL ARGUMENTATION AND PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY: TOPICS IN HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY by Máté Veres Submitted to Central European University Department of Philosophy In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy Supervisor: Prof. Gábor Betegh CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2016 Table of contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ 7 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 1. Keep calm and carry on: Sextan Pyrrhonism as a kind of philosophy ....... 17 1. Philosophy and inquiry ............................................................................................ 18 2. The road to Pyrrhonism ........................................................................................... 22 2.1. The 'origins' of scepticism (PH I. 12) ............................................................... 22 2.2. The goal of Pyrrhonism (PH I. 26 and 29)........................................................ 26 2.3. Men of talent ..................................................................................................... 34 3. The origin of Pyrrhonism ......................................................................................... 37 3.1. The Partisan Premise ......................................................................................... 39 3.2. Who's a quitter? ................................................................................................ 44 4. The story of Apelles (PH I. 28) ................................................................................ 50 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 55 Chapter 2. Religious life and intellectual safety in Sextus Empiricus ......................... 57 1. Sextan caveats: PH III. 2 and M IX. 49 ................................................................... 59 2. Observant Pyrrhonism: thoughtless conformism or closet disbelief?...................... 63 The Insincerity Charge ............................................................................................. 67 External safety ......................................................................................................... 69 3. The Autonomy Account ........................................................................................... 73 4. Intellectual safety ..................................................................................................... 78 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 81 Chapter 3. Necessary impieties? The Sextan case against dogmatic theology in PH III. ...................................................................................................................................... 82 The argument at PH III. 2-12. .................................................................................. 83 1. Conceptual arguments: PH III. 2-5. ................................................................. 84 2. Existential arguments: PH III. 6-9. .................................................................. 92 2.1. The transition ............................................................................................ 93 2.2. The argument ............................................................................................ 96 3. Providential arguments: PH III. 9-12. ............................................................ 102 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 111 Chapter 4. Dogmatic conceptions: The Sextan case against dogmatic theology in M IX. .............................................................................................................................. 113 1. Conceptual aetiologies ....................................................................................... 114 CEU eTD Collection The arguments (M IX. 14-28) ............................................................................ 115 The objections (M IX. 29-48) ............................................................................ 117 A Pyrrhonean preconception? ............................................................................ 120 2. Conception and existence (M IX. 49) ................................................................ 123 2.1. Inexpert editing? ......................................................................................... 126 2.2. No uniform agenda? .................................................................................... 126 2.3. Dogmatic conformism? ............................................................................... 129 3. Against the Academics (M IX. 1-13) ................................................................. 131 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 139 2 Chapter 5. Lapsarian scepticism in Cicero's De Natura Deorum .............................. 140 Agenda ................................................................................................................... 141 1. Cicero's provisional judgement (ND III. 95) ..................................................... 142 1.1. Renouncing scepticism?.............................................................................. 145 2.2. Cicero's scepticism ...................................................................................... 150 2. Providence and inquiry: Cicero's theological hesitancy .................................... 154 2.1. Perdifficilis et perobscura quaestio: The sceptical setup in the dialogue's preface (ND I. 1-14) ........................................................................................... 154 2.2. Quanto Stoici melius: Consensus and dismissal in dogmatic theology ...... 158 3. Cicero and Cotta: The lesser of two lapses? ...................................................... 164 3.1. Cotta and Sextus ......................................................................................... 166 3.2. Philonian tampering? .................................................................................. 169 3.3. Cicero versus Cotta ..................................................................................... 173 4. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 176 Chapter 6. Theology, Innatism, and the Epicurean Self: A Discussion ..................... 177 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 177 2. 'Realism' versus 'idealism': what is it all about? ................................................ 178 3. Minimal requirements ........................................................................................ 180 4. Arguments for and against ................................................................................. 184 5. Dispositional innatism in Epicurus .................................................................... 197 6. Disagreement and the Epicurean self ................................................................. 201 7. Theology and multiple explanation ................................................................... 204 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 207 Concluding remarks ................................................................................................... 208 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 210 1. Editions and translations .................................................................................... 210 2. Secondary literature ........................................................................................... 211 CEU eTD Collection 3 I hereby declare that the thesis presented here contains no material accepted for any other degrees in any other institutions. I also declare that the thesis presented here contains no material previously written and / or published by another person, except where appropriate acknowledgement has been made in the form of bibliographic reference. .......................... Máté Veres Budapest, 12 June 2016 CEU eTD Collection 4 Abstract In Chapter 1, I consider the objection that Pyrrhonism cannot be a kind of philosophy in any garden-variety sense of the term, since suspension makes one unmotivated or unable to engage in truth-oriented inquiry. In response, I show that Sextus provides a narrative accounting for the original motivations of inquirers, as well as for the eventual split among dogmatists and Pyrrhoneans. On this account, suspension does not do away with the possibility of inquiry, rather keeps one removed from dogmatic commitments that would terminate inquiry. In Chapter 2, I examine the claim that Pyrrhoneans suspend about dogmatic theology, but engage in cultic practices of their societies without breach of their suspensive policy. I argue that the conformism advocated by Sextus is not dogmatic, and that possible