UC Davis: The Skeptical Crisis in European Philosophy - The Diigo Meta page

• 28 Jan 08
  

  ken meece

  Around all matters of religion and theology also, there rages violent controversy. For while the majority declare that gods exist, some deny their existence. . . . And of those who maintain the existence of gods, some believe in the ancestral gods, others in such as are constructed in the Dogmatic systems--as Aristotle asserted that God is incorporeal and "the limit of heaven," the Stoics that he is a breath which permeates even things most foul, Epicurus that he is anthropomorphic, Xenophanes that he is an impassive sphere." (Outlines of Pyrrhonism, Book III, 218

  philosophy skeptical

  • Around all matters of religion and theology also, there rages violent controversy. For while the majority declare that gods exist, some deny their existence. . . . And of those who maintain the existence of gods, some believe in the ancestral gods, others in such as are constructed in the Dogmatic systems--as Aristotle asserted that God is incorporeal and "the limit of heaven," the Stoics that he is a breath which permeates even things most foul, Epicurus that he is anthropomorphic, Xenophanes that he is an impassive sphere." (Outlines of Pyrrhonism, Book III, 218
  • Tradition was scorned by Luther, in favor of direct reading of scripture, which, after all, is the word of God. But as defenders of the Catholic Church pointed out, there are many ways of interpreting the text of the holy books, and without the authority of the Church to determine the correct reasoning, no interpretation would be better than any other. Each side argued in this sort of way in favor of their criteria, but as the Pyrrhonian could have pointed out in advance, the argument could not be settled because it is another instance of the problem of the criterion.  

    It was in this environment that the works of Sextus and others were re-discovered in Europe.
  • the most important anti-skeptical philosopher was René Descartes. He was concerned not with religous issues, but with the justification of the kind of scientific claims epitomized by the work of Galileo.
  • Michel de Montaigne, who attempted to turn Pyrrhonian skepticism to the service of the Catholic faith.

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