The Sceptics

“The Ethiopians say that their gods are black and snub‐nosed, while the Thracians say that theirs are blue‐eyed and red‐haired”, observed Xenophanes of Colophon, who is believed to have been born about a century before Socrates. In the first half of his contribution to the Arguments of the Philosophers series R.J. Hankinson examines the historical development of the Greek sceptical tradition from Xenophanes and other Presocratics through Pyrrho of Elis (c.360‐c.270 BC) and the post‐Platonic Academy to the second century AD. He devotes the second half to a critical analysis of Pyrrhonian Scepticism as presented by...