How to Be a Pyrrhonist: The Practice and Significance of Pyrrhonian Skepticism
Cambridge University Press, 3/21/2019
EAN 9781108471077, ISBN10: 1108471072
Hardcover, 278 pages, 23.5 x 15.7 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
What was it like to be a practitioner of Pyrrhonist skepticism? This important volume brings together for the first time a selection of Richard Bett's essays on ancient Pyrrhonism, allowing readers a better understanding of the key aspects of this school of thought. The volume examines Pyrrhonism's manner of self-presentation, including its methods of writing, its desire to show how special it is, and its use of humor; it considers Pyrrhonism's argumentative procedures regarding specific topics, such as signs, space, or the Modes; and it explores what it meant in practice to live as a Pyrrhonist, including the kind of ethical outlook which Pyrrhonism might allow and, in general, the character of a skeptical life - and how far these might strike us as feasible or desirable. It also shows how Pyrrhonism often raises questions that matter to us today, both in our everyday lives and in our philosophical reflection.
Part I. How the Pyrrhonists Present Themselves
1. The Pyrrhonist's dilemma
what to write if you have nothing to say
2. Why care whether scepticism is different from other philosophies?
3. Humor as philosophical subversion, especially in the sceptics
Part II. Pyrrhonists at Work
Specific Topics
4. The sign in the Pyrrhonian tradition
5. Aenesidemus the anti-physicist
6. The modes in Sextus
theory and practice
Part III. Life as a Pyrrhonist
7. What kind of self can a Greek sceptic have?
8. How ethical can an ancient sceptic be?
9. Living as a sceptic
Part IV. Intersections of Pyrrhonism with Contemporary Thought
10. Can an ancient Greek sceptic be Eudaimôn (or happy)? And what difference does the answer make to us? 11. On Pyrrhonism, stances, and believing what you want
12. Can we be ancient sceptics?