{"id":10730,"date":"2011-05-01T17:34:51","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T17:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/05\/01\/inquiry-doxastic-equipose-and-ataraxia\/"},"modified":"2011-05-01T17:34:51","modified_gmt":"2011-05-01T17:34:51","slug":"inquiry-doxastic-equipose-and-ataraxia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/05\/01\/inquiry-doxastic-equipose-and-ataraxia\/","title":{"rendered":"Inquiry, Doxastic Equipose, and Ataraxia<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seldom Seen Slim writes,<\/span><\/p>\n

I'm very happy to see you writing<\/a> (so well) about the summum bonum<\/em>.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/span><\/div>\n
I don't have the text of Sextus at hand to cite you chapter & verse, but I think I recall this correctly.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/span><\/div>\n
It would be pretty ironic for a skeptic to denigrate inquiry since skeptikos<\/em> means precisely one who inquires. The skeptic arrives at adoxia<\/em> (if he does) not by deciding or choosing to walk away from an issue like AGW [anthropogenic global warming], but by inquiring into it assiduously. If he does so, then something begins to happen in his mind as he accumulates many many arguments pro and con. He eventually finds himself in a state of equipoise, as inclined to believe as to disbelieve. Adoxia<\/em> is the spontaneous product of assiduous inquiry.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/span><\/div>\n
Slim is alluding to, and taking issue with, the last sentence of Ataraxia and the Impossibility of Living Without Beliefs.<\/a>  What I said there implies that the Pyrrhonian denigrates inquiry.  Slim rightly points out that the skeptic is by his very nature an inquirer.  And as I myself have said more than once in these pages, doubt is the engine of inquiry.  So my formulation was sloppy.  It is not that the skeptic denigrates inquiry; it is is rather that he denigrates the notion that inquiry will lead to a truth that transcends appearances.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/span><\/div>\n
The Pyrrhonian skeptic inquires, not to arrive at the truth, but to achieve doxastic equipoise and adoxia<\/em>, belieflessness.  This in turn is supposed to engender ataraxia<\/em>.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/span><\/div>\n
It's a bold conjecture, and, alas, a completely false one, in my experience at least. The more I inquire into an issue, the more likely I am to settle on one side or another, and not find myself floating in tranquil equipoise betwixt them. Maybe your experience is different? In any case, the skeptical remedy for partisan belief is study, study, study. They believe studying something to death will take you to equipoise and ataraxia. Willfully choosing to ignore an issue like AGW, they believe, will not buy you ataraxia at all. You remain disposed to believe or disbelieve according to your prejudices, and only the therapy of inquiry can work these doxastic prejudices out of you.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/span><\/div>\n
Slim here offers an excellent and accurate summary of The Skeptic Way, which is also the title of a fine book by Benson Mates.<\/span><\/div>\n
  <\/span><\/div>\n
One can doubt whether ataraxia<\/em> is the summum bonum<\/em> and whether it is achievable in the skeptic manner.  But one thing to me is clear: insight into just how inconclusive are the arguments on both sides of many if not all issues leads to a salutary decrease in dogmatism.<\/span>  <\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seldom Seen Slim writes, I'm very happy to see you writing (so well) about the summum bonum.   I don't have the text of Sextus at hand to cite you chapter & verse, but I think I recall this correctly.   It would be pretty ironic for a skeptic to denigrate inquiry since skeptikos means precisely … Continue reading “Inquiry, Doxastic Equipose, and Ataraxia<\/i>“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,579,391],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-skepticism","category-ataraxia","category-skepticism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}