Richard Bett
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 958192 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Richard Bett |
| NOMBRES | Richard |
| APELLIDO | Bett |
| FIRMA | BETT R |
| AFILIACIONES | Johns Hopkins University |
| VERIFICADO | No |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 35 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 6 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 33 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 2 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1986 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 2 |
The Stoics and Carneades
This chapter discusses the Stoics’ support for their epistemology, especially the “cognitive impression,” in the wake of Arcesilaus’s challenge, and their continued insistence, against the Academics, that choice and action without assent are impossible. It then examines Carneades’s responses to these moves: his renewed attack on the Stoic cognitive impression, his opposition to assent, and his vindication of the possibility of choice and action d…
Conceptualising Concepts in Greek Philosophy
Calling Philosophers Names
What is philosophy? This has been a contentious question for as long as the subject has existed. And how long is that? That too is far from obvious, even if we confine ourselves just to the Western tradition. The Greek thinkers standardly viewed as the first Western philosophers did not call themselves “philosophers”; it was largely through Aristotle’s retrospective view of them as having done something recognizably similar to what he himself did…
Prodicus on the Choice of Heracles, Language, and Religion
“Prodicus on the Choice of Heracles, Language, and Religion” begins with an examination of Plato’s portrait of Prodicus in his Protagoras , and a few biographical details. It then addresses three main points for which Prodicus is generally known: 1) he told a story about Heracles’ choice between Virtue and Vice; 2) he paid much attention to fine distinctions among terms that most people would regard as synonymous; and 3) he offered explanations o…
Humor as Philosophical Subversion
Positive philosophical projects and humor do not generally go together. When humor is used, it is often to draw attention to where one might go wrong: someone or something is made fun of. This point is first illustrated with cases in Aristotle. But if this is a major function of humor in philosophy, it offers special opportunities to those whose entire approach to philosophy is critical rather than constructive—those who are suspicious of the who…
How to Be a Pyrrhonist
What was it like to be a practitioner of Pyrrhonist skepticism? This important volume brings together for the first time a selection of Richard Bett's essays on ancient Pyrrhonism, allowing readers a better understanding of the key aspects of this school of thought. The volume examines Pyrrhonism's manner of self-presentation, including its methods of writing, its desire to show how special it is, and its use of humor; it considers Pyrrhonism's a…
How to Be a Pyrrhonist
Arkesilaos of Pitane
Arkesilaos was the first skeptical head of the Academy. He claimed to revive a Socratic practice of question and answer, with a view to generating skeptical suspension of judgment ( epochê ). But he is also reported to have claimed that nothing could be known, which is inconsistent with epochê , and to have promoted epochê itself as a positive good, which again looks like a definite position. One may interpret these remarks “dialectically”: that …
Greek Buddha
Book Review| September 01 2016 Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia Beckwith, Christopher, Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015), 304 pp. Richard Bett Richard Bett Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Common Knowledge (2016) 22 (3): 501. https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-3633998 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Fac…
Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius
Pyrrhonian skepticism has gradually gained a stellar reputation. Rather than being dismissed as extremist and evidently implausible, as it often was in the past, it is now recognized as a philosophically sophisticated outlook, sympathetic to today's commitment to science as a long-term enterprise. Ancient skepticism is now seen as an important position in the history of philosophy and as addressing core questions in epistemology. It is worthwhile…
On Pyrrhonism, Stances, and Believing What You Want
The paper considers the relations between the Pyrrhonism of Sextus Empiricus and epistemological voluntarism, as applied both to epistemic stances and to individual beliefs. In the first part, the main question is whether ancient skepticism is congenial to the idea of alternative epistemic stances (and hence, potentially, to voluntarism about them). The answer proposed is that skepticism does not in fact recognize this possibility. However, this …
Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius
Pyrrhonische Skepsis bei Diogenes Laertius.
A Sceptic Looks at Art (but not Very Closely)
The paper examines Sextus Empiricus’ Against the Musicians ( M 6), one of the least studied portions of Sextus’ surviving work, against the background of the more general question why he has so little to say on questions that for us would fall under aesthetics. The structure and goals of the book are considered, along with some puzzles about the consistency of his aims. Each of the two main parts is then analyzed separately, including a compariso…
How Ethical Can an Ancient Skeptic Be?
Sextus Empiricus
Sextus Empiricus' Against the Physicists examines numerous topics central to ancient Greek inquiries into the nature of the physical world, covering subjects such as god, cause and effect, whole and part, bodies, place, motion, time, number, coming into being and perishing and is the most extensive surviving treatment of these topics by an ancient Greek sceptic. Sextus scrutinizes the theories of non-sceptical thinkers and generates suspension of…
Nietzsche and the Romans
This article examines Nietzsche's interest in and appeal to the Romans in both his published and unpublished work. In most cases he shows little interest in specific figures from ancient Roman politics or military history, literature, or philosophy. Julius Caesar is the conspicuous exception among politicians and generals; he figures among Nietzsche's very short list of truly great human beings. In the literary and philosophical sphere, the major…
Beauty and its relation to goodness in Stoicism
It is well known that the concept of to kalon in ancient Greek occurs in a wide variety of contexts. It applies to physical beauty, but it is also common in ethical contexts, where “honorable” or “noble” are often appropriate English translations, and where Cicero regularly Latinizes it as honestum. Nor does this exhaust the possible applications of the concept, to judge from the range of objects that receive the label kalon in Plato's dialogue d…
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism
This volume offers a comprehensive survey of the main periods, schools, and individual proponents of scepticism in the ancient Greek and Roman world. The contributors examine the major developments chronologically and historically, ranging from the early antecedents of scepticism to the Pyrrhonist tradition. They address the central philosophical and interpretive problems surrounding the sceptics' ideas on subjects including belief, action, and e…
Scepticism and ethics
Ancient Greek scepticism has an inherently practical character; in this respect it is unlike some of its modern counterparts, but typical of ancient Greek philosophy. This practical aspect is explicit in the Pyrrhonist tradition, all of whose leading members emphasized the tranquility (ataraxia) the sceptical outlook supposedly engendered, by contrast with the mental turmoil associated with a dogmatic outlook. But it is apparent in the Academic t…
Socratic Ignorance
Socrates famously claims to lack knowledge or wisdom. This profession of ignorance seems to raise a number of questions. There is the question of what precisely he takes himself to be ignorant of – or, conversely, what categories of knowledge, if any, he takes himself to have. There is also the question of what precisely it means for him to profess ignorance – or, conversely, what conception of knowledge he is presupposing, such that he considers…
The Stoic Life
Sextus Empiricus
Sextus Empiricus' Against the Logicians is by far the most detailed surviving examination by any ancient Greek sceptic of the areas of epistemology and logic. It critically examines the pretensions of non-sceptical philosophers to have discovered methods for determining the truth, either through direct observation or by inference from the observed to the unobserved. It is therefore a fine example of the Pyrrhonist sceptical method at work. It als…
Nietzsche, the Greeks, and Happiness (with Special Reference to Aristotle and Epicurus)
Sextus Empiricus and Pyrrhonean Scepticism
Book Review| January 01 2003 Sextus Empiricus and Pyrrhonean Scepticism Alan Bailey, Sextus Empiricus and Pyrrhonean Scepticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pp. xvi, 302. Richard Bett Richard Bett Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The Philosophical Review (2003) 112 (1): 100–102. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-112-1-100 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Rev…
Nietzsche on the Skeptics and Nietzsche as Skeptic
Etude de la reference aux Sceptiques grecs, en particulier, et au scepticisme, en general, dans la philosophie de Nietzsche. Examinant la culture philologique, ainsi que l'attitude du penseur face au scepticisme, l'A. s'interroge sur la possibilite d'une interpretation sceptique de la philosophie nietzscheenne dans son ensemble.
The Sophists and Relativism
It is frequently alleged that the Sophists were relativists. Claims to this effect can be found in general histories of philosophy, in histories of Greek philosophy, in studies of the Sophists, in studies of relativism, and elsewhere. Sometimes it is moral or ethical relativism specifically that is ascribed to them, at other times a broader relativism concerning knowledge, truth or reality in general; but that the Sophists were some species of re…
Immortality and the Nature of the Soul in the Phaedrus
Nietzsche and the Romans
This article examines Nietzsche's interest in and appeal to the Romans in both his published and unpublished work. In most cases he shows little interest in specific figures from ancient Roman politics or military history, literature, or philosophy. Julius Caesar is the conspicuous exception among politicians and generals; he figures among Nietzsche's very short list of truly great human beings. In the literary and philosophical sphere, the major…
Against the Ethicists
Immortality and the Nature of the Soul in the Phaedrus
The Sophists and Relativism
It is frequently alleged that the Sophists were relativists. Claims to this effect can be found in general histories of philosophy, in histories of Greek philosophy, in studies of the Sophists, in studies of relativism, and elsewhere. Sometimes it is moral or ethical relativism specifically that is ascribed to them, at other times a broader relativism concerning knowledge, truth or reality in general; but that the Sophists were some species of re…
Carneades’ Distinction Between Assent and Approval
Journal Article Carneades' Distinction between Assent and Approval Get access Richard Bett Richard Bett University of Texas at Arlington Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar The Monist, Volume 73, Issue 1, 1 January 1990, Pages 3–20, https://doi.org/10.5840/monist199073114 Published: 09 December 2014
Aristocles on Timon on Pyrrho
A Comprehensive understanding of Greek scept1c1sm must include an understanding of its origins. I think we are at present nowhere close to this position. Greek scepticism was traditionally supposed to have begun with Pyrrho of Elis; but it is not at all clear why he was accorded this status, or how far it was justified. This is partly because the evidence concerning Pyrrho is scarce and often suspect. But it is also because the interpretations of…
Sextus's Against the Ethicists
L'A. etudie le relativisme ethique que formule Sextus Empiricus dans le livre XI de son ouvrage critique «Contre les professeurs», intitule «Contre les Ethiciens». L'A. montre que Sextus Empiricus y developpe une position originale qui depasse les deux objections paradoxales qui lui sont souvent opposees: celle, d'une part, d'une inconsistance logique avec le scepticisme en general, et celle, d'autre part, d'une assimilation avec le pyrrhonisme d…
What did Pyrrho think about “The Nature of the Divine and the Good”
L'A. souleve les problemes d'interpretation de quelques lignes de Timon de Phleius dans ses «Indalmoi» sur la nature du divin et du bien, lignes qui ont toujours ete comprises comme une transcription des idees de Pyrrhon. L'A. souleve le caractere dogmatique de cette citation et propose, s'appuyant sur l'ambiguite du texte a ce propos et pour eviter une contradiction avec le scepticisme de Pyrrhon, d'attribuer ces paroles a Timon lui-meme
Cicero Academicus
Reactions to Aristotle in the Greek Sceptical Traditions
Against the Ethicists
Sextus Empiricus
Nietzsche on the Skeptics and Nietzsche as Skeptic
Etude de la reference aux Sceptiques grecs, en particulier, et au scepticisme, en general, dans la philosophie de Nietzsche. Examinant la culture philologique, ainsi que l'attitude du penseur face au scepticisme, l'A. s'interroge sur la possibilite d'une interpretation sceptique de la philosophie nietzscheenne dans son ensemble.
Sextus Empiricus and Pyrrhonean Scepticism
Book Review| January 01 2003 Sextus Empiricus and Pyrrhonean Scepticism Alan Bailey, Sextus Empiricus and Pyrrhonean Scepticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pp. xvi, 302. Richard Bett Richard Bett Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The Philosophical Review (2003) 112 (1): 100–102. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-112-1-100 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Rev…
Sextus Empiricus
Sextus Empiricus' Against the Logicians is by far the most detailed surviving examination by any ancient Greek sceptic of the areas of epistemology and logic. It critically examines the pretensions of non-sceptical philosophers to have discovered methods for determining the truth, either through direct observation or by inference from the observed to the unobserved. It is therefore a fine example of the Pyrrhonist sceptical method at work. It als…
Nietzsche, the Greeks, and Happiness (with Special Reference to Aristotle and Epicurus)
The Stoic Life
Beauty and its relation to goodness in Stoicism
It is well known that the concept of to kalon in ancient Greek occurs in a wide variety of contexts. It applies to physical beauty, but it is also common in ethical contexts, where “honorable” or “noble” are often appropriate English translations, and where Cicero regularly Latinizes it as honestum. Nor does this exhaust the possible applications of the concept, to judge from the range of objects that receive the label kalon in Plato's dialogue d…
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism
This volume offers a comprehensive survey of the main periods, schools, and individual proponents of scepticism in the ancient Greek and Roman world. The contributors examine the major developments chronologically and historically, ranging from the early antecedents of scepticism to the Pyrrhonist tradition. They address the central philosophical and interpretive problems surrounding the sceptics' ideas on subjects including belief, action, and e…
Scepticism and ethics
Ancient Greek scepticism has an inherently practical character; in this respect it is unlike some of its modern counterparts, but typical of ancient Greek philosophy. This practical aspect is explicit in the Pyrrhonist tradition, all of whose leading members emphasized the tranquility (ataraxia) the sceptical outlook supposedly engendered, by contrast with the mental turmoil associated with a dogmatic outlook. But it is apparent in the Academic t…
Socratic Ignorance
Socrates famously claims to lack knowledge or wisdom. This profession of ignorance seems to raise a number of questions. There is the question of what precisely he takes himself to be ignorant of – or, conversely, what categories of knowledge, if any, he takes himself to have. There is also the question of what precisely it means for him to profess ignorance – or, conversely, what conception of knowledge he is presupposing, such that he considers…
Nietzsche and the Romans
This article examines Nietzsche's interest in and appeal to the Romans in both his published and unpublished work. In most cases he shows little interest in specific figures from ancient Roman politics or military history, literature, or philosophy. Julius Caesar is the conspicuous exception among politicians and generals; he figures among Nietzsche's very short list of truly great human beings. In the literary and philosophical sphere, the major…
How Ethical Can an Ancient Skeptic Be?
Sextus Empiricus
Sextus Empiricus' Against the Physicists examines numerous topics central to ancient Greek inquiries into the nature of the physical world, covering subjects such as god, cause and effect, whole and part, bodies, place, motion, time, number, coming into being and perishing and is the most extensive surviving treatment of these topics by an ancient Greek sceptic. Sextus scrutinizes the theories of non-sceptical thinkers and generates suspension of…
A Sceptic Looks at Art (but not Very Closely)
The paper examines Sextus Empiricus’ Against the Musicians ( M 6), one of the least studied portions of Sextus’ surviving work, against the background of the more general question why he has so little to say on questions that for us would fall under aesthetics. The structure and goals of the book are considered, along with some puzzles about the consistency of his aims. Each of the two main parts is then analyzed separately, including a compariso…
Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius
Pyrrhonian skepticism has gradually gained a stellar reputation. Rather than being dismissed as extremist and evidently implausible, as it often was in the past, it is now recognized as a philosophically sophisticated outlook, sympathetic to today's commitment to science as a long-term enterprise. Ancient skepticism is now seen as an important position in the history of philosophy and as addressing core questions in epistemology. It is worthwhile…
On Pyrrhonism, Stances, and Believing What You Want
The paper considers the relations between the Pyrrhonism of Sextus Empiricus and epistemological voluntarism, as applied both to epistemic stances and to individual beliefs. In the first part, the main question is whether ancient skepticism is congenial to the idea of alternative epistemic stances (and hence, potentially, to voluntarism about them). The answer proposed is that skepticism does not in fact recognize this possibility. However, this …
Philosophy (30 obras) · Classical Philosophy and Thought (28 obras) · Epistemology (27 obras) · Skepticism (16 obras) · Art (12 obras) · Literature (12 obras) · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies (10 obras) · Classical Antiquity Studies (8 obras) · Computer Science (8 obras) · History (8 obras)