Argumentative Persuasiveness in Ancient Pyrrhonism

DIEGO EMANUEL MACHUCA

París

Conferencia; Dynamiques de l’invention philosophique, scientifique et artistique; 2008

Université Paris X-Nanterre

The present paper has two, interrelated objectives. The first is to analyze the different senses in which arguments are characterized as persuasive in the extant writings of Sextus Empiricus. The second is to examine the Pyrrhonist’s therapeutic use of arguments in the discussion with his Dogmatic rivals – more precisely, to determine the sense and basis of Sextus’ distinction between therapeutic arguments that appear weighty and therapeutic arguments that appear weak in their persuasiveness. Although Pyrrhonian argumentative therapy has been a subject of analysis among scholars, it has not received all the attention it deserves and one still finds certain misunderstandings about the Pyrrhonist’s therapeutic use of arguments. Accordingly, I will discuss at some length several of the interpretations that have been proposed by scholars.