Skeptical Traditions
Syllabus

All men by nature desire to know. Aristotle

Sceptical doubt, both with respect to reason and the senses, is a malady, which can never be radically cur’d, but must return upon us every moment, however we may chace it away… David Hume

Human reason has this peculiar fate that in one species of its knowledge it is burdened by questions which, as prescribed by the very nature of reason itself, it is not able to ignore, but which, as transcending all its powers, it is also not able to answer. Immanuel Kant

[Take 1:] Skepticism happens. The denial of knowledge is a philosophical pathology. There can be an outbreak of this disease at any time, in any cultural context, and there is always the danger that without constant, careful philosophical prophylaxis, it will become an epidemic resistant to all philosophical prescription. It may start out as a cheap and easy fix, but it can become an addiction and then lead to the retro-virus that inevitably develops into fully-fledged anti-realism and relativism. The end can only be intellectual paralysis, ethical nihilism, and existential despair. Its causes are obscure; there is no known cure. The only hope is early diagnosis and aggressive treatment.

To know the Way is not as good as to love it, and to love it is not as good as to take delight in it. Confucius (6:18)

Who knows that he does not know is the highest; Who pretends to know what he does not know is sick-minded. And who recognizes sick-mindedness as sick-mindedness is not sick-minded. Lao-Tse

We come first to suspension of judgment and afterwards to tranquility. Sextus Empiricus

[Take 2:] Part of what it is to think rationally is to think about rationality. It is a matter of intellectual honesty, integrity, and humility to recognize that there are limits to our cognitive powers. The obsessive pursuit of absolutes – Certainty, Knowledge, Truth – does more psychological and philosophical harm than good. And the hubris that is manifest in any claims to success in those pursuits is worse: it can lead to philosophical dogmatism, religious intolerance, and political authoritarianism. Skepticism is a liberating tonic politically and psychologically as well as philosophically.

Skepticism in one form or another has been an important and perennial theme in the history of philosophy. On occasion, this theme has erupted onto the philosophical agenda and dominated the discourse. At other times, it was in the background, but it always managed to exert an influence on other questions. The opposition between the two images of skepticism sketched above has been another important and perennial theme in philosophical thought, but it may be that there are different kinds of skepticism under consideration rather than different conceptions of a single philosophical position going by the name of "skepticism." That is, how skepticism is conceived – whether it is regarded as a symptom of deep confusion, as part of the human condition, or as the product of profound insight – is in large measure a function of what kind of skepticism is in conceived. Skepticism takes different forms in different contexts.

In this course, we will focus on three great philosophical texts from three different cultural contexts: Sextus Empiricus’ Outlines of Scepticism from Ancient Greece, Nagarjuna’s Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way from Ancient India, and the Chuang Tzu from Ancient China. [If time permits, two other skeptical voices – Al Ghazzali, a Medieval Persian philosopher, and Michel de Montaigne, a 16th century French writer – will be given some say.] All of these philosophers can fairly be called "skeptical," but there is a danger in using that label. It suggests that they are all part of the same philosophical project or that they are largely in agreement with one another. While there may be some merit to that thesis, it is not a conclusion that can be drawn in advance of a close reading of the texts. Nor, of course, can any contrary conclusions – e.g., that the different cultural contexts imply that they must be concerned with different questions and they must reach different answers – be reasonably propounded prior to engaging with these philosophers and their thoughts.

[Take 3:] Modern Skepticism offers a negative thesis about the limits of reason and the elusiveness of knowledge, but in its Ancient incarnations, Skepticism was a philosophy of life. It was, in the end, more optimistic about life’s possibilities rather pessimistic about reason’s limitations.