Ancient Skepticism

General doctrines

According to Sextus, philosophy skeptic (during his late time) is a nondogmatic philosophy whose methodological principle is to oppose to all valid Raison, and on any subject, contrary reason and quite as convincing. The aim of this research, which one can describe as Logique, is to destroy to them false opinions that we support on any subject and who return to us unhappy while misleading us on the Nature things. This last point can be close to the epicureanism; but the comparison stops there, because the skeptic intends well to remain in ignorance by not admitting anything which is not doubtful. He does not formulate assumptions, but leaves always open the possibility of a refutation.

On the other hand, the Réalité of the phenomena is held for certain, i.e. appearance is such as it appears to us. He does not say: “this object (as substance) is such (intrinsic quality)” ; but: “this object, as it appears, appears with such significant quality” to me. From the point of view of the Knowledge, that amounts denying the category of substance, to affirm only dependant appearances without substrate Métaphysique; from a moral point of view, this distinction makes it possible to lay down rules of life resulting from the experiment: in general, the skeptic follows the established beliefs, even if it does not believe in it. The opinions of the common direction are indifferent for him: such is the moral conclusion of this philosophy, the Ataraxie and the acatalepsy (the peace and absence of comprehension).

According to Victor Brochard, skepticism, in its most rigorous formulations, is a true scientific method, comparable with the modern scientific spirit. Indeed, not posing any assumption of a metaphysical nature, skepticism does not prohibit to study the phenomena and to make the Théorie of it. But it is necessary to say however that these philosophers do not seem to have been aware of the epistemological innovation of their Doctrine, too occupied which they were in their research of the happy indifference.

History of ancient skepticism

This Philosophie seems to take a systematic form only at the first century after J.C. (or a few decades before J.C.), with Ænésidème, then Sextus Empiricus Clutched. But, before them, the Nouvelle Academy appears to be the true heiress of skepticism for the period IIIe - I er We have two works of Sextus Empiricus, the Esquisses pyrrhoniennes and Against the professors . What the other skeptics taught is difficult to establish with certainty.

Origins

According to Diogène Laërce (IX, 71), certain skeptics made go up the origin of their thought with Homère and the wise Seven. One indeed finds very early formulas skeptics in the Greek culture: Nothing too for example.

But one also finds interrogations on the possibility of knowledge at the Présocratiques:

Because of the weakness of our directions, we are impotent to distinguish the truth. Anaxagore

the truth is at the bottom of the well. Démocrite

It there forever have, it will never have there a man who knows with certainty what I say of the gods and the universe. Nevertheless it would meet the truth on these subjects, it would not be sure to have it: the opinion reigns in all things. Xénophane de Colophon

Protagoras affirms that on any subject, one can oppose contrary reasons (Diogène Laërce, IX, 51). Socrate affirms that all that it knows, it is that it does not know anything. Many aspects of what later will be called skepticism impregnate thus the civilization of the Greece. But their synthesis in a coherent philosophical system will still take a few centuries.

Old skepticism

We know few things about the old skepticism, which appears to be primarily only one practical skepticism:

See detailed articles Pyrrhon and Tiller of Phlionte

The New Academy

The New Academy is often attached to the history of the pyrrhonism because of their reciprocal influence and their resemblances:

Neo-pyrrhonism

It seems well that skepticism does not reach with its most rigorous conceptualization than at that time, with skeptics whom one sometimes described as dialectical:

See detailed articles Ænésidème and Clutched

The doctors skeptics and the empirical school

More or less differentiated from dialectical skepticism, there existed also an empirical branch of this school, connects particularly related on medicine and the scientific experimentation:

See detailed articles Ménodote de Nicomédie and Sextus Empiricus

Skepticism in the broad sense

The base of the skepticism of after the Middle Ages is that Science, Matérialisme and Athéisme is three closely bound philosophical positions, i.e. one does not go without the other.

The skepticism of the Rebirth

The Rebirth, in addition to the redécouverte of Old, is characterized by a setting in swing of the certainty concerning physics. One of the starting points of the period of the often proposed Rebirth is the discovery of the heliocentrism by Copernic. It is about a true traumatism in the field of human knowledge, and Freud will qualify it first wound of the selfishness of the man (which he will make succeed of it one second, the theory of the evolution of Darwin, then a third, the psychoanalysis). The man is not any more in the center of the world, his certainty of living in a harmonious world flies in glare. There is neither order no more, neither predetermined place, nor rule. This will perdurera until the arrival of Newton and its theory of the gravitation.

The Rebirth, it is also the period of violent and interminable wars of religion within Christianity. The religion becomes one of the leading causes of suffering. Europe is torn and starts to doubt its dogmas.

The humanistic ones are plunged then in the reading of Old, of which they have finally the texts, in order to finding an answer acceptable to the sudden instability of the world. They will find only contradictions between the various schools, without one being able reasonably to give the preference to the one of it.

Montaigne will deduce from it that it is vain to try to discover the operation of the world. The only field of research which is authorized with the philosopher, it is its own interiority.

Traditional and modern skepticism

August 1st

The traditional and modern period constitutes an effort to break the pessimistic skepticism of the Rebirth, in particular at the rationalists like Descartes and Kant. Their works consist of a taking into account of the irrefutable fact skeptic, for then to save knowledge and metaphysics.

Hume, for its part, integrates skepticism with an aim of reinforcing the theories empirists, by invalidating any possibility of traditional metaphysical reflection.

Descartes : one cannot prove that our current perception is reliable, that one is not for example dreaming, if not by the certainty of the existence of God.

the skepticism of Descartes is strongly inspired by that of Montaigne ( the Tests ). One can consider that Descartes is closer to Montaigne from the point of view of the basic principles of its thought than of later rationalist philosophies. At his place skepticism is the first step towards knowledge. It is one moment to exceed to build a knowledge. It is on the doubt that its " is built; Speech of the méthode" , but one should not lose sight of the fact that its main aim is to reverse ambient skepticism, by showing that it is possible to have knowledge. Montaigne doubts to doubt, whereas Descartes doubts not to doubt more.

David Hume: we do not have any proof but the representation of the world which the data of the directions provide us constitutes a reliable knowledge of this world, our knowledge stopping with the data of the directions.
Kant : our Perception takes place in space and time, structures transcendantales of our spirit, thus we can never “know” the world in oneself, but we can nevertheless think of the objects transcending the experiment.

contemporary period

Skepticism is found today in currents of thought such as the epistemology constructivist, which clearly proposes to a philosophy of the knowledge of inspiration skeptic, or the social Constructivisme.

There exists finally a scientific Scepticisme, which seeks to promote science, the critical thought and to subject the Pseudo-science S to the experimental method. In France, this movement is known under the name of Zététique. It however does not have any bond with philosophical skepticism in a strict sense, the word " sceptique" in front of in its case being heard in its current direction.

Skepticism in Asia

Nagarjuna, founder of the Buddhist school Madhyamaka, denies the being as well as the non-being: nothing has of clean nature, any phenomenal knowledge is only conventional. In a more general way, the Buddhism, like skepticism, denies the category of substance and sees only “Vacuité” (clean absence of nature which would make that a thing would be independent of the other things, which joined also the concept of conditioned coproduction) in the phenomena as well as in the Absolute (Nirvāna).

Dispute of skepticism

Theorem of Cox-Jaynes: according to this theorem, it is necessary to grant a provisional credit to some not checked ideas (possibly false, therefore), in order to create the experiments which will cancel them or not (this idea being as old as skepticism). By questionings successive, considerations of reduction of entropy show that the ideas of various observers (which have different a priori ) will converge towards a single vision where an objective subjacent reality exists, and is observable in one way or another. This theorem also raises the doubts which planed on the mechanism (also baptized scandal by Bertrand Russell), of the induction. See also Inference bayésienne.

See too

Random links:

Pond of Waldeck | Jean-Claude Kaufmann | Season 2002 of the diamond helmet | Orthodoxe church of Gaules | Jean-Joseph Julaud