The Epistemology of the Cyrenaic School

This 1998 book reconstructs the Cyrenaic theory of knowledge and discusses its connections with modern and contemporary views on knowledge.

Voula Tsouna (Author)

9780521622073, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 December 1998

204 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.47 kg

"...astutely argued and clearly well-written..." Richard Bett, Ancient Philosophy

The Cyrenaic school was a fourth-century BC philosophical movement, related both to the Socratic tradition and to Greek Scepticism. In ethics, Cyrenaic hedonism can be seen as one of many attempts made by the associates of Socrates and their followers to endorse his ethical outlook and to explore the implications of his method. In epistemology, there are close philosophical links between the Cyrenaics and the Sceptics, both Pyrrhonists and Academics. There are further links with modern philosophy as well, for the Cyrenaics introduced a form of subjectivism which in some ways preannounces Cartesian views, endorsed by Malebranche and Hume and developed by Kant. This 1998 book reconstructs Cyrenaic epistemology, explains how it depends on Cyrenaic hedonism, locates it in the context of ancient debates, and discusses its connections with modern and contemporary epistemological positions.

Preface
Abbreviations
1. Knowledge and the good life: the ethical motivation of the Cyrenaic views on knowledge
Part I. Subjectivism: 2. The nature of the pathe
3. The vocabulary of the pathe
4. The apprehension of the pathe
5. The criticism of Aristocles of Messene
Part II. Scepticism: 6. The causes of the pathe: objects in the world
7. Our ignorance of other minds
8. Some remarks on language
Part III. Subjectivism, Empiricism, Relativism: Cyrenaics, Epicureans, Protagoreans: 9. Cyrenaic subjectivism and the Epicurean doctrine that all perceptions are true: Plutarch, Adv. Col. 1120f–1121e
10. Cyrenaic epistemology and Protagorean relativism: some considerations
11. The Socratic connection
Appendix: sources and testimonies
References
Index of names
Index locorum
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA]