HoP 480 Honorable Ignorance: French Skepticism

Peter Adamson· Host0:00

[instrumental music] Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to The History of Philosophy Podcast, brought to you with the support of the Philosophy Department at King's College London and the LMU in Munich, online at historyofphilosophy.net. Today's episode, Honorable Ignorance: French Skepticism. We learn two things from the fact that Descartes compared the skeptical arguments that begin his meditations to stale cabbage that he had reheated for his audience. First, even in the 17th century, people didn't like cabbage enough to finish it at the first attempt. Second, skeptical strategies were at this time familiar or even over-familiar to an educated readership. That was an outcome of a long process of forgetting and remembering. In antiquity, the skeptics had been a formidable presence on the philosophical scene. Critical thinkers who took over at Plato's academy, like Carneades and Arcesilaus, offered the most penetrating criticism of Stoic philosophy. The arguments of this so-called New Academy were taken up by other skeptics like Philo of Larissa and Cicero, with the significant caveat that they allowed for the embrace of beliefs that seemed to have the balance of probability on their side. But while it wouldn't be appropriate to be dogmatic about it, I'd venture to say that ancient skepticism reached its peak in