Abstract
Ancient scepticism has again become the focus of attention. In the last decade, valuable contributions to the revived debate between Dogmatists and Sceptics have been those of J. P. Dumont, J. Barnes, M. Burnyeat, M. Frede, J. Brunschwig, and C. Stough.1 This paper discusses the concept of experience as developed by Empiricism.2
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J.-P. Dumont, Le scepticisme et le phénomène, Vrin, Paris, 1972
Interesting topics and debates are to be found in more recent collective works such as Doubt and Dogmatism, eds. M. S. Schofield, M. Burnyeat, J. Barnes, Oxford, 1980.
Science and Speculation, eds. J. Barnes, J. Brunschwig, M. Burnyeat, M. S. Schofield, Cambridge, Paris, 1982.
The Skeptical Tradition, ed. M. Burnyeat, Berkeley, 1983.
Philosophy and History, eds. R. Rorty et al, Cambridge, 1984.
J. Annas and J. Barnes, The Modes of Scepticism, Ancient Texts and Modern Interpretations, Cambridge University Press, 1985.
J. Barnes, “The Beliefs of a Pyrrhonist”, in Elenchos, IV, 1983, pp. 5–43.
M. Frede, “The Skeptic’s Beliefs”, Essays in Ancient Philosophy, Oxford, 1987, pp. 179–200.
C. Stough, “Sextus Empiricus on Non-Assertion”, Phronesis, 1984, pp. 137–63.
M. L. Mcpherran, “Skeptical Homeopathy and Self-Refutation”, Phronesis, 1987, pp. 290–328.
The three Schools of Medicine were the Dogmatic or Logical, the Empiric and the Methodic. See Galen Πεϱί τῆς ἀϱιστης αἱϱέσεως (De optima secta), ed. Kühn (henceforth Κ.), Hildesheim, 1964, and Ὄϱοι ἰατϱικοί (Definitiones medicae) Κ. XIX, 359, 9.
In K. Deichgräber, Die Griechische Empirikerschule, Sammlung der Fragmente und Darstellung der Lehre, 1930, Berlin/Zürich 1965, pp. 42–90
The original Greek manuscript has never been found, cf. J. Barnes, “Medicine, Experience and Logic” in Science and Speculation, p. 25 n. 1. In Celsus’s Prooemium to his De Medicina (27–44) we have the oldest source on medical empiricism that came down to us. For a recent commentary on Celsus’s Prooemium, see Ph. Mudry, La Préface du De Medicina de Celse, Bibliotheca Helvetica Romana, Institut Suisse de Rome, 1982.
Sextus, PH I 13–14. Cf. Gal. De opt. sec. I, 122, 5
Soranus, Quaestiones medicinales, Anecdota Graeco-Romana, V, Rose 2, p. 253; in Deichgräber, p. 90, Celsus states clearly: “inquiry about obscure causes and natural action is superfluous, because nature is not to be comprehended” (Prooemium 27 and 28).
Sextus, PH 123.
For a clear distinction of the two terms see Scholia in Dionysii Thraci Artem Grammaticam, ed. A. Hilgard, 1901, 10, 24 sq.
Gal. De opt. secta I, 131.
Gal. De opt. secta 1,131.
Gal. Sec. intr., in Deichgräber 95.
Gal. Subf. emp. 57–58.
Gal. Subf. emp. 46. Cf. Def. med. XIX 354, 12. Theorem is knowledge of a thing observed many times by means of which we are informed as to the possibility of its not occurring.
Those terms were part of the technical medical vocabulary. See Gal. Def. med. XIX 354, 12.
Gal. Subf. emp., in Deichgräber 46.
Gal. De opt. sect. 1150 sq.
Gal. De opt. sect. Ι Κ 151 sq. Cf. Subf. emp., Deichgräber, 70 sq.
Edmund Husserl, Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologische Philosophie I, ed. W. Biemel, Nijhoff, Den Haag, 1950.
See Aristotle, Priori Anal. 68b sq. and Top. 156 b 10–17.
Gal. Subf. emp., Deichgräber, 105 and 122.
Sextus, PH 97–134 and M VIII 141–299.
Epilogism as opposed to analogism proceeds from what is seen. Analogism is the reasoning from phenomena to adela. Gal. Def. med. XIX Κ. 354.
On the rejection of general nouns see Sextus, PH II 219 sq.
Gal., Ther. Meth. X 152 sq.
Gal. Subf. emp., Deichgräber, 59.
Celsus’s Prooem. 19–27.
Procatarctic causes are considered by the Empiricists to be symptoms. Subf. emp., Deichgräber, 92.
Celsus’s Prooem. 27.
See Photius, Bibliotheca, ed. R. Henry, vol. III, 1962, Budé c. 212.
Sextus, PH 1180–186. We are dealing here only with the etiological modes.
J. Annas and J. Barnes, The Modes of Scepticism, Ancient Texts and Modern Interpretations, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985, p. 16.
Sextus, PH I 183 and 184.
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Pentzopoulou-Valalas, T. (1990). Experience and Causal Explanation in Medical Empiricism. In: Nicolacopoulos, P. (eds) Greek Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 121. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2015-6_6
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