Abstract

Abstract The five modes are a list of tools used by ancient sceptics to guide dogmatic people towards suspending their judgement. Attributed to Agrippa (of uncertain date) and used extensively by Sextus Empiricus (2nd or 3rd century CE), these modes are still widely discussed today by epistemologists and specialists in ancient philosophy. Scholars disagree, however, on how to understand the way the five modes are used together and what the logical form of the sceptical strategy behind their deployment is. This paper offers a reconstruction of the system of the five modes that avoids these problems. In specific, unlike previous reconstructions, (a) it includes a non-trivial version of the mode of relativity, (b) avoids committing the sceptic to a normative principle and (c) follows the textual evidence more closely. Moreover, I argue that the system can be better understood as a list of steps in a process, whose underlying logic can be expressed by a single algorithm.

Highlights

  • The five modes –the mode of disagreement, regress, relativity, hypothesis, and reciprocity– are a list of tools used by ancient sceptics to guide dogmatic people towards suspending their judgement

  • Unlike previous reconstructions, (a) it includes a non-trivial version of the mode of relativity, (b) avoids committing the sceptic to a normative principle and (c) follows the textual evidence more closely

  • I argue that the system can be better understood as a list of steps in a process, whose underlying logic can be expressed by a single algorithm

Read more

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The five modes –the mode of disagreement, regress, relativity, hypothesis, and reciprocity– are a list of tools used by ancient sceptics to guide dogmatic people towards suspending their judgement. Attributed to Agrippa (of uncertain date) and used extensively by Sextus Empiricus (2nd or 3rd century CE), these modes are still widely discussed today by epistemologists and specialists in ancient philosophy. The five modes –the mode of disagreement, regress, relativity, hypothesis, and reciprocity– are a list of tools used by ancient sceptics to guide dogmatic people towards suspending their judgement.. On how to understand the way the five modes are used together and what the logical form of the sceptical strategy behind their deployment is. This paper offers a reconstruction of the system of the five modes for the suspension of judgement that aims to avoid these problems. Unlike previous reconstructions, (a) it includes a non-trivial version of the mode of relativity, (b) avoids committing the sceptic to a normative principle and (c) follows the textual evidence more closely. I argue that the system can be better understood as a list of steps in a process, whose underlying logic can be expressed by a single algorithm

CURRENT PROPOSALS TO RECONSTRUCT THE
The five modes as a triggering strategy plus sceptical arguments
The five modes as a single dialectical strategy
THE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE
A NEW WAY TO UNDERSTAND SEXTUS’ USE OF THE
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call