Course : HELLENISTIC EPISTEMOLOGY

Dear all,

here are the exam questions! Please send your replies by Monday 2nd of February.

all the best,

Anna and Katerina

Please give your replies on two of the six following topics, making sure that you cover two of the Hellenistic schools.

1. Identify and briefly describe the Epicurean criteria of truth. Next, elaborate the Epicurean doctrine that all aistheseis (sense-impressions or sensations or perceptions) are true. What does ‘true’ mean in this context?
2. What are the preconceptions in Epicureanism? What is their role in Epicurean epistemology and scientific methodology?
3. How did the Stoics deal with Meno’s paradox?
4. Does the Stoic criterion of truth withstand the criticism raised by the Academic Sceptics?
5. Were Arcesilaus and Carneades committed to the theses they argued for, or did they argue in a dialectical way? Present the evidence found in Sextus and in Cicero’s Academica, and argue for the interpretation that you find more convincing.
6. Do the Pyrrhonians abolish the criterion of truth? What is the strategy and target of the Pyrrhonian arguments against it? What is the Pyrrhonian answer to the inactivity (apraxia) objection?