How to Be a Pyrrhonist

Richard Bett is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at The Johns Hopkins University. His translations of works by Sextus Empiricus include Sextus Empiricus: Against the Logicians (Cambridge, 2005) and Sextus Empiricus: Against the Physicists (Cambridge, 2012), and he is also the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism (Cambridge, 2010).

• Part I. How the Pyrrhonists Present Themselves: 1. The Pyrrhonist's dilemma: what to write if you have nothing to say; 2. Why care whether scepticism is different from other philosophies?; 3. Humor as philosophical subversion, especially in the sceptics; Part II. Pyrrhonists at Work: Specific Topics: 4. The sign in the Pyrrhonian tradition; 5. Aenesidemus the anti-physicist; 6. The modes in Sextus: theory and practice; Part III. Life as a Pyrrhonist: 7. What kind of self can a Greek sceptic have?; 8. How ethical can an ancient sceptic be?; 9. Living as a sceptic; Part IV. Intersections of Pyrrhonism with Contemporary Thought: 10. Can an ancient Greek sceptic be Eudaimôn (or happy)? And what difference does the answer make to us? 11. On Pyrrhonism, stances, and believing what you want; 12. Can we be ancient sceptics?

'Everyone who works on ancient skepticism will want to spend time with these essays. Bett has a sure instinct for questions that matter, and he knows the works of Sextus backwards and forwards. Cambridge University has done scholars a great service with this volume.' Bryn Mawr Classical Review