Scepticism or Platonism?: The Philosophy of the Fourth Academy (Cambridge Classical Studies).

IX., 192 Seiten / p. Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langjährigem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - altersgemäß sehr guter Zustand / very good condition for age - We all know what we now mean by a sceptic. The Greeks and Romans of the late second century A.D. meant something slightly different by it, but knew what they meant. For Sextus Empiricus it was one who had grave doubts about the possibility of ascertaining anything or even estimating probabilities. The near-legendary founder of the sceptic movement, Pyrrho of Elis, was thought to have perfected the practice of judging purely by the impression of the moment, freed from any preconceived ideas. Precursors of scepticism had supposedly pointed to the difficulties of arriving at any certain knowledge, but they had fallen short of Pyrrho’s example. After a period when the study of uncertainty had been left to the Academy, the sceptic discipline had been revived in Alexandria during the first century B.C. by Aenesidemus, and had survived more or less continuously until Sextus’ day. -- We do not have to go much further back in time before a note of ambiguity is detected in the term. Aulus Gellius, following Favorinus, 6 explains that the term ‘sceptic’ is used of both Pyrrhonian and Academic philosophers (NA 11.5.6), even though he had previously (11.5.1) thought of it as a Greek cognomen for Pyrrhonians. While Favorinus saw only slight differences between Pyrrhonians and Academics, and seemed to see himself as an Academic with the authority to speak on Pyrrhonian subjects, 7 we do not receive the impression at NA 11.5.6 that it was his own idea that the terms ‘sceptic’, ‘ephectic’, and ‘aporetic’ should be applied equally to Academics; the Latin dicuntur suggests that those descriptions were regularly used of Academics, probably in the considerable body of literature which had already arisen concerning the difference between the two schools, and which had been mentioned at 11.5.6. ISBN 9780521301916