Skepticism

I recently picked up from the library Benson Mates's The Skeptic Way. I hadn't known about the the Pyrrhonic Skeptics, a philosophy advocated by Sextus Empiricus. I'm just reading about it now, so expect some summaries of what I learn to periodically be written about in this blog.

The Skeptics were opposed to the Stoics, but they also seem similar in some ways. Like the Stoics, the Skeptics advocated a particular practical mode of life from first principles. In this case, though, they felt that they didn't have enough reason to believe in anything in particular, so they felt that it was wrong to judge life as it came. So, in the end, they accepted the various fortunes of life like the Stoics did. But of course, that is just one aspect of Stoic thought. Once I get farther with the book, I should have more insight into the Skeptic way of thinking.

What drew me to the book is that I identify as a skeptic. Note the small 's'. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in things that seem improbable to me. I'd like to think I have a pretty good system for deciding what to trust or not. Such as system can never be perfect, but I feel my system is essentially a skeptical one. The belief that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, the use of Occam's Razor, and the understanding of logical arguments are all key components of critical thinking, and skepticism as I define it is no more than critical thinking. This seems quite a bit different than the sweeping claims of Sextus Empiricus, I think. More on this later.