PHILOS 1E03 Lecture Notes - Hellenistic Philosophy, Ataraxia, Circular Reasoning

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHILOS 1E03
• Professor: Stefan Rodde

Document Summary

Hellenistic philosophy: the aim of philosophy: ataraxia (state of well-being, freedom from disturbance) Hellenistic skepticism: skepticism as a means to ataraxia, epoche: withholding assent. Freedom from disturbance with respect to matters of belief. Strategy: for every argument another argument of equal [weight] is opposed : eg. The claim that the tomato is quite red is either. Decidable (there is a fact of the matter) or. But: we can only appeal to a criterion to resolve this problem if we already know that it is a true/good one. Agrippa"s trilemma: how can we justify a claim, i) regress of reasons. We give reasons for it, and reasons for our reasons, and reasons for our reasons for our reasons, ad infinitum: ii) circular reasoning, iii) a dogmatic statement. This criterion is good because it shows us that it is good. A mere declaration is not a justification.