Essays in Ancient Epistemology
ISBN: 9780198746768
Platform/Publisher: Oxford Academic / Oxford University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited
Subjects: Philosophy History of Philosophy Metaphysics/ Epistemology;

This volume draws together a series of thirteen essays on ancient epistemology by Gail Fine. She discusses knowledge, belief, subjectivity, and scepticism in Plato, Aristotle, and the Pyrrhonian sceptics. They consider such questions as: is episteme knowledge? Is doxa belief? Do the ancients have the notion of subjectivity? Do any of them countenance external world scepticism? Several essays compare these philosophers with one another, as well as with more recent discussions of knowledge, belief, subjectivity, and scepticism, asking how if at all the ancient discussions of these topics differ from more recent ones. In exploring these issues, the essays often make use of the distinction between concepts and conceptions, between an abstract account of something, and more determinate ways of filling it in. Together they compose a rich set of investigations, illuminating ancient perspectives on the central questions in epistemology.


Gail Fine received her BA from the University of Michigan in 1971, and her PhD from Harvard University in 1975. She also holds an MA from Oxford University (2009). She taught at Cornell University from 1975-2017; and was a Senior Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford from 2007-2019. She is now Professor Emerita of Philosophy at Cornell University, and Senior Research Fellow Emerita at Merton College. Since 2007, she has been a Visiting Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Oxford University.
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