Philosophical Skepticism provides a selection of texts drawn from the skeptical tradition of Western philosophy as well as texts written by opponents of skepticism. Taken together with the historical introduction by Landesman and Meeks, these texts clearly illustrate the profound influence that skeptical stances have had on the nature of philosophical inquiry. 1) Draws a selection of texts from the skeptical tradition of Western philosophy as well as texts written by opponents of skepticism. 2) Spans centuries of skeptical and anti-skeptical arguments, from Socrates to Rorty. 3) Includes essays by Plato, Cicero, Diogenes Laertius, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, Russell, Quine, Nagel, and many others.

Table of Contents

• • Acknowledgment
  • Introduction    1
• Pt. I    Global Skepticism    7
  • 1    Plato, from Apology    9
  • 2    Diogenes Laertius, from Pyrrho    23
  • 3    Cicero, from Academica    30
  • 4    Sextus Empiricus, from Outlines of Pyrrhonism    34
  • 5    Rene Descartes, “Meditation I”    45
  • 6    David Hume, from An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding    51
  • 7    Thomas Nagel, from The View from Nowhere    78
  • 8    Peter Unger, “A Defense of Skepticism”    90
• Pt. II    Skeptical Topics    111
  • 9     W. T. Stace, “The Refutation of Realism”    114
  • 10    G. E. Moore, from “Proof of an External World”    125
  • 11    J. L. Austin, from Sense and Sensibilia    132
  • 12    Hans Reichenbach, from The Theory of Probability    148
  • 13    Michael Levin, “Reliabilism and Induction”    158
  • 14    Thomas Nagel, “Other Minds”    170
  • 15    Bertrand Russell, “Analogy”    175
  • 16    Norman Malcolm, “Knowledge of Other Minds”    180
  • 17    Rene Descartes, “Meditation II”    192
  • 18    David Hume, “Of Personal Identity”    201
  • 19    Immanuel Kant, from “The Paralogisms of Pure Reason”    214
  • 20    Friedrich Nietzsche, from Beyond Good and Evil    219
  • 21    Ludwig Wittgenstein, from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus    222
  • 22    Michel de Montaigne, from “Apology for Raymond Sebond”    226
  • 23    Blaise Pascal, from Pensees    232
  • 24    David Hume, from “Of Miracles”    242
  • 25    Soren Kierkegaard, from Concluding Unscientific Postscript    256
  • 26    Rene Descartes, from “Meditation VI”    273
  • 27    Jean-Baptiste Moliere, from The Forced Marriage    284
  • 28    David Hume, from A Treatise of Human Nature    287
  • 29    Thomas Reid, from Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man    296
  • 30    Immanuel Kant, from Prolegomena and Critique of Pure Reason    310
  • 31    Martin Heidegger, from Being and Time    322
  • 32    W. V. Quine, from “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” and “Epistemology Naturalized”    324
  • 33    Richard Rorty, “Solidarity or Objectivity”    344
  • Index    361