Ancient Self-Refutation: The Logic and History of the Self-Refutation Argument from Democritus to Augustine
by Luca CastagnoliFormat: Hardcover
Pub. Date: 2010-11-08
Publisher(s): Cambridge University Press
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Summary
A 'self-refutation argument' is any argument which aims at showing that (and how) a certain thesis is self-refuting. This is the first book-length treatment of ancient self-refutation and provides a unified account of what is distinctive in the ancient approach to the self-refutation argument, on the basis of close philological, logical and historical analysis of a variety of sources. It examines the logic, force, and prospects of this original style of argumentation within the context of ancient philosophical debates, dispelling various misconceptions concerning its nature and purpose and elucidating some important differences which exist both within the ancient approach to self-refutation and between that approach, as a whole, and some modern counterparts of it. In providing a comprehensive account of ancient self-refutation, the book advances our understanding of influential and debated texts and arguments from philosophers like Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, the Stoics, the Academic sceptics, the Pyrrhonists and Augustine.
Table of Contents
| List of illustrations | p. ix |
| Acknowledgements | p. x |
| Notes on the texts and translations | p. xii |
| Symbols abbreviations | p. xiii |
| List of abbreviations of authors and works | p. xv |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Truth, Falsehood and Self-Refutation | p. 11 |
| Preliminaries | p. 13 |
| A modern approach: Mackie on the absolute self-refutation of 'Nothing is true' | p. 17 |
| Setting the ancient stage: Dissoi Logoi 4.6 | p. 24 |
| Self-refutation and dialectic: Plato | p. 31 |
| Dionysodorus' downfall (Euthd. 286c-288a) | p. 32 |
| Protagoras refuted (Tht. 170a-171d) | p. 40 |
| Speaking to Antiphasis: Aristotle | p. 68 |
| Self-refutation and begging the question (Metaph. ⌈ 4, 1008a27-30) | p. 68 |
| 'Everything is true', 'Everything is false': the self-elimination 'stock objection' (Metaph. ⌈ 8, 1012b13-22) | p. 75 |
| Dialectical refutations or logical proofs? Some methodological reflections (Metaph. K 5, 1062a36-bII) | p. 79 |
| Apparent self-refutations: 'it is not possible that statements are all false, or all true' (Metaph. K 6, 1063b30-5) and the elenctic proof of PNC in ⌈ 4 | p. 83 |
| Introducing ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿: Sextus Empiricus | p. 95 |
| 'Every appearance is true': dialectical reversal or Consequentia Mirabilis? (M 7.389-90) | p. 95 |
| 'Nothing is true': two different strategies for reversal (M 8.55 and 7.399) | p. 114 |
| Augustine's turn | p. 121 |
| Truth is imperishable: a Consequentia Mirabilis in the Soliloquia (2.2.2) | p. 121 |
| Excursus: the medieval legacy of Augustine's Ratio | p. 129 |
| Interim conclusions | p. 139 |
| Pragmatic, AD Hominem and Operational Self-Refutation | p. 143 |
| Epicurus against the determinist: blame and reversal | p. 145 |
| Anti-sceptical dilemmas: pragmatic or ad hominem self-refutations? | p. 160 |
| Must we philosophise? Aristotle's protreptic argument | p. 187 |
| Augustine's Si fallor, sum: how to prove one's existence by Consequentia Mirabilis | p. 197 |
| A step back: operational self-refutations in Plato | p. 205 |
| What is operational self-refutation? | p. 205 |
| The refutation of extreme flux (Tht. 179c-183b) | p. 207 |
| The One's troubles (Sph. 244b-d, 249c6-8) | p. 218 |
| The 'late-learners' and that weird fellow Eurycles (Sph. 252b-c) | p. 225 |
| The ineffable ineffability of what is not: Plato (Sph. 238c-239b, Prmd. 142a) and the Platonist tradition | p. 236 |
| Scepticism and Self-Refutation | p. 249 |
| Self-bracketing Pyrrhonism: Sextus Empiricus | p. 251 |
| Embracing self-refutation? The relevant passages and the problem | p. 252 |
| Self-bracketing expressions: purgatives and expunging brackets (PH 1.13-15, 1.206) | p. 256 |
| Self-bracketing arguments: where does the ladder take us? (M 8.463-81) | p. 278 |
| Scepticism and self-refutation: looking backwards | p. 308 |
| Reflexive vs. non-reflexive scepticism: Atomists, Academics and Stoics | p. 308 |
| Self-refutation in pre-Sextan Pyrrhonism | p. 329 |
| Conclusion | p. 353 |
| References | p. 362 |
| Index of passages | p. 380 |
| General index | p. 389 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
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