Agrippan Pyrrhonism

DIEGO E. MACHUCA

Durham

Conferencia; Seminar Department of Classics and Ancient History; 2009

Durham University

The subject of this paper is the set of arguments known as the Five Modes of Agrippa, which are the most powerful weapons of the Pyrrhonian arsenal found in Sextus Empiricus’ extant works. The paper’s purpose is threefold, since it proposes to show: (i) that the view that the Pyrrhonist is not committed to the Agrippan modes, albeit correct, could prevent us from noticing that he may well assent to them in a restricted, non-Dogmatic way; (ii) that Sextus’ recourse to possible future disagreements to induce epoche in the absence of actual present disagreements is not necessarily incompatible with his account of Pyrrhonism; and (iii) that present-day epistemologists fail to understand the Pyrrhonist’s argumentative strategy and the full force of the Five Modes.