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“Did Descartes read Sextus’s Outlines of Pyrrhonism?” A “sceptical” response

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posted on 2024-10-30, 12:14 authored by Paul O'MahoneyPaul O'Mahoney

This article has been invited by The European Legacy editors as a response to Ayumu Tamura’s “Did Descartes Read Sextus’s Outlines of Pyrrhonism?” which continues the promising lines of enquiry he has opened up into the possible influence of ancient authors and concepts on Descartes’s philosophy. It is intended that Tamura’s article and this response will together help further debate on Descartes and what we can hope to establish of his sources, while serving also as a specific example of the general problems associated with presenting or proving indirect influences of ancient philosophy on major figures of modern thought, particularly on innovators such as Descartes—where might we trace and how might we demonstrate direct lines of influence, identify continuities on the one hand and discontinuities or disruptions of lines of thought on the other, and establish whether such represent in each case a conscious continuity or opposition to major predecessors. I have called the response “sceptical” in so far as I am not satisfied the case for direct knowledge of Sextus in Descartes has been established; but, conceding as one must that the opposite is equally not conclusively demonstrable, I have been happy to accept the editors’ invitation and for this friendly exchange to be presented to readers.

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Publication

The European Legacy,2024, 29 (6), 614–622

Publisher

Taylor and Francis

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