Sextus Empiricus: Against Those in the Disciplines: Translated with Introduction and Notes Sextus Empiricus

Sextus Empiricus: Against Those in the Disciplines: Translated with Introduction and Notes – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 9780198712701,0198712707,9780192558145, 0192558145

Product details:

• ISBN 10: 0192558145
• ISBN 13: 9780192558145
• Author: Sextus Empiricus,Richard Bett
  

Against Those in the Disciplines (Pros Mathêmatikous, also known by the abbreviated title M 1-6) deals with six specialized fields of study: grammar, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, astrology, and music. In sceptical fashion, it questions the credentials of those who claim to have expert knowledge in these fields. It is the least well known of Sextus Empiricus’ works, mainly because its subject-matter is not directly philosophical; some of its arguments require knowledge of these fields as they existed in the ancient world, which philosophers (Sextus’ main readership) tend not to have. But it is a good specimen of Sextus’ usual sceptical method of inducing suspension of judgement about the topics under consideration, and it contains much that is of philosophical interest. This volume aims to bring this work to a wider philosophical audience and to make the technicalities of the fields discussed understandable to non-specialists. It contains a translation of the work into clear modern English, accompanied by extensive explanatory notes. For ease of comprehension, the text is broken down into named sections and subsections, and these are also listed separately before the translation (the Outline of Argument). An introduction discusses the place of Against Those in the Disciplines in the totality of Sextus’ work, and examines certain features that are distinctive to it. Other aids to the reader are a list of persons referred to in the work, with brief information about each; an English-Greek and Greek-English glossary of key terms; and a list of passages in other works of Sextus that are parallel to passages in this work.

Table contents:

Introduction
1. Life and works
2. Sextus’ Pyrrhonist skepticism
3. Negative dogmatism?
4. Other notable features of M 1–6
Note on the Text and Translation
Outline of Argument
Against Those in the Disciplines
Sextus Empiricus: Against Those in the Disciplines
Book 1
A. Introduction to the entire work (1–8)
B. General arguments against the disciplines (9–40)
C. Against the Grammarians (41–320)
Book 2: Against the Rhetoricians
1. Three definitions of rhetoric (1–9)
2. Problems with rhetoric’s status as an expertise (10–47)
3. Problems stemming from rhetoric’s subject matter (48–59)
4. Problems stemming from rhetoric’s end (60–88)
5. Problems concerning the parts of rhetoric (89–105)
6. Arguments for the non-existence of demonstration (106–12)
7. Transition to Against the Geometers (113)
Book 3: Against the Geometers
1. Hypothesis in geometry (1–17)
2. Transition to focus on the principles of geometry; the objects to be discussed, and in what order (17–21)
3. The point, and its inconceivability (22–8)
4. The line (29–59)
5. Problems in conceiving of a surface, based in large part on the previous conception of the line (60–4)
6. Further difficulties stemming from the geometers’ own theories (65–91)
7. Transition from principles to the things that supposedly follow from them (92–3)
8. Interim project of addressing “lower-level principles” (94–107)
9. The promised focus on “the theories that come after their principles” (108–16)
Book 4: Against the Arithmeticians
1. Transition from Against the Geometers (1)
2. Pythagorean account of numbers and their importance (2–9)
3. Transition to counter-argument, to be centered around the unit (10)
4. Platonic conception of the one and the things that participate in it (11–13)
5. Arguments against this picture (14–20)
6. Further arguments, inspired by Plato, against the dyad (20–2)
7. Arguments against subtraction and addition, both essential to arithmetic (23–33)
8. Conclusion to this book and to Against the Geometers, and transition to Against the Astrologers (34)
Book 5: Against the Astrologers
1. Introduction (1–3)
2. Outline of astrological method (4–42)
3. Some counter-arguments by others (43–8)
4. The Pyrrhonists’ own counter-arguments (49–105)
5. Transition to Against the Musicians (106)
Book 6: Against the Musicians
1. Introduction: specification of what is to be attacked and in what ways (1–6)
2. Whether music has good effects on character and mood (7–37)
3. Attack on the principles of music (37–67)
4. Conclusion (68)
Persons Referred to in Against Those in the Disciplines
Glossary
1. English–Greek
2. Greek–English

People also search:

sextus empiricus against the mathematicians pdf

sextus empiricus skepticism

sextus empiricus outlines of scepticism

sextus empiricus books

sextus empiricus quotes