Skeptical Traditions East and West

The skeptical project begins and ends in doubt and the refusal to affirm any belief dogmatically. While these ideas are most frequently associated with the writings of Cicero and Sextus Empiricus, they also appear in early Buddhist and Daoist texts. The course examines several strands of skeptical philosophy as they appear in writings from ancient Greece, Rome, China, and India. It further explores literary enactments, appropriations, and critiques of skepticism evident in the skeptical revival of the European Renaissance and in Zen kōans.