Skepticism
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In this episode, Peter Adamson discusses the sophists, teachers of rhetoric in ancient Athens, looking especially at the contributions of Protagoras and Gorgias.
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Peter turns to the final major Hellenistic school, the Skeptics, beginning with Pyrrho and the question of how ancient skepticism compares to modern skepticism.
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Under Arcesilaus and Carneades, Plato’s Academy took a skeptical turn, casting doubt on the possibility of knowledge. But was their skepticism skeptical enough?
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Cicero’s philosophical works are invaluable records of Hellenistic thought. But what kind of philosopher was Cicero himself?
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Peter talks to Raphael Woolf about the method and philosophical allegiance of Cicero, focusing on the work On Ends (De Finibus).
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Sextus Empiricus, the last great ancient skeptic, expounds a radical branch of the tradition called Pyrrhonism. Peter raises some doubts about how to interpret him.
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Al-Ghazālī’s search for truth leads him to philosophy, Ash'arite theology, and ultimately the mystical tradition of Ṣūfism.
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Ideas spread to Mughal India from Iran, and prince Dārā Shikūh seeks to unite the wisdom of the Upanishads with the Koran.
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Skeptical tendences in Indian thought and responses to skepticism from the Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta schools.
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Nyāya philosophers explain how perception can bring us knowledge.
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An interview with Susan Brower-Toland covering Ockham's views on cognition, consciousness, and memory.
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The Cārvāka or Lokāyata tradition rejects the efficacy of ritual and belief in the afterlife, and restricts knowledge to the realm of sense-perception.
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Nāgārjuna founds the Mādhyamaka (“middle way”) Buddhist tradition by “relinquishing all views” and arguing that everything is “empty.”
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Nāgārjuna applies his emptiness theory to motion, change, and cognition.
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Nāgārjuna’s four-fold argument scheme, the tetralemma (catuṣkoṭi).
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A discussion with Jan Westerhoff, an expert on the great Buddhist thinker Nāgārjuna, dealing with the notion of emptiness, the tetralemma, and Nāgārjuna's reception in India and Tibet.
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The debate between Nicholas of Autrecourt and John Buridan on whether it is possible to achieve certain knowledge.
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The medievals were too firm in their beliefs to entertain skeptical worries, right? Don't be so sure, as Peter learns from Dominik Perler.
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Did Indian ideas play a role in shaping ancient Greek philosophy?
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The rediscovery of Epicurus, Lucretius, and Sextus Empiricus spreads challenging ideas about chance, atomism, and skepticism.
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Was Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa a dark magician, a pious skeptic, or both?
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An interview on the nature of religious tolerance, and the forms it took during the Reformation and in the thought of early modern thinkers like Locke and Leibniz.
Maria Rosa Antognazza is Professor of Philosophy at King's College London.
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The sources and scope of the skepticism of Montaigne, Charron (pictured), and Sanches.
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No doubt that we're in good hands with interview guest Henrik Lagerlund, who brings his expertise in the history of skepticism to bear on the French Renaissance. Including a look ahead to Descartes!
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Marie le Jars de Gourney, the “adoptive daughter” of Montaigne, lays claim to his legacy and argues for the equality of the sexes.
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How should we approach Shakespeare’s plays as philosophical texts? We take as examples skepticism and politics in Othello, King Lear, and Julius Caesar.
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Changing ideas about eyesight, light, mirror images, and refraction – and the skeptical worries they may have inspired.
