Agrippa () was a Pyrrhonist

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

who probably lived towards the end of the 1st century CE. He is regarded as the author of "The Five Tropes (or Modes, in ) of Agrippa", which are purported to establish the necessity of suspending judgment (

epoché In Hellenistic philosophy, epoché (also epoche; pronounced or ; ) is suspension of judgment but also "withholding of assent". Pyrrhonism Epoché plays an important role in Pyrrhonism, the skeptical philosophy named after Pyrrho, who is ...

). Agrippa's arguments form the basis of the Agrippan trilemma.

The five modes of Agrippa

Sextus Empiricus Sextus Empiricus (, ; ) was a Greek Pyrrhonist philosopher and Empiric school physician with Roman citizenship. His philosophical works are the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman Pyrrhonism, and because of the argument ...

described these "modes" or "tropes" in ''Outlines of Pyrrhonism'', attributing them "to the more recent skeptics";

Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; , ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek ph ...

attributes them to Agrippa.Diogenes Laërtius, ix. The five modes of Agrippa (also known as the five tropes of Agrippa) are: # ''

Dissent Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...

'' – The uncertainty demonstrated by the differences of opinions among philosophers and people in general. # ''Progress

ad infinitum ''Ad infinitum'' is a Latin phrase meaning "to infinity" or "forevermore". Description In context, it usually means "continue forever, without limit" and this can be used to describe a non-terminating process, a non-terminating ''repeating'' pro ...

'' – All proof rests on matters themselves in need of proof, and so on to infinity, i.e., the regress argument. # '' Relation'' – All things are changed as their relations become changed, or, as we look upon them from different points of view. # '' Assumption'' – The truth asserted is based on an unsupported assumption. # '' Circularity'' – The truth asserted involves a circularity of proofs.

According to the mode deriving from dispute, we find that undecidable dissension about the matter proposed has come about both in ordinary life and among philosophers. Because of this we are not able to choose or to rule out anything, and we end up with suspension of judgement. In the mode deriving from infinite regress, we say that what is brought forward as a source of conviction for the matter proposed itself needs another such source, which itself needs another, and so ''ad infinitum'', so that we have no point from which to begin to establish anything, and suspension of judgement follows. In the mode deriving from relativity, as we said above, the existing object appears to be such-and-such relative to the subject judging and to the things observed together with it, but we suspend judgement on what it is like in its nature. We have the mode from hypothesis when the Dogmatists, being thrown back ''ad infinitum'', begin from something which they do not establish but claim to assume simply and without proof in virtue of a concession. The reciprocal mode occurs when what ought to be confirmatory of the object under investigation needs to be made convincing by the object under investigation; then, being unable to take either in order to establish the other, we suspend judgement about both.

The first and third tropes summarize the earlier Ten Modes of

Aenesidemus Aenesidemus ( or Αἰνεσίδημος) was a 1st-century BC Greek Pyrrhonist philosopher from Knossos who revived the doctrines of Pyrrho and introduced ten skeptical "modes" (''tropai'') for the suspension of judgment. He broke with the Acad ...

. The three additional ones show a progress in the Pyrrhonist system, building upon the objections derived from the fallibility of sense and opinion to more abstract and metaphysical grounds. According to Victor Brochard "the five tropes can be regarded as the most radical and most precise formulation of

philosophical skepticism Philosophical skepticism (UK spelling: scepticism; from Ancient Greek, Greek σκέψις ''skepsis'', "inquiry") is a family of philosophical views that question the possibility of knowledge. It differs from other forms of skepticism in that ...

that has ever been given. In a sense, they are still irresistible today."Brochard, V., ''The Greek Skeptics''.

Notes

Bibliography

, ''Outlines of Pyrrhonism'' *

, ''Lives of the Philosophers''. * Victor Brochard, ''The Greek Skeptics'' *L. E. Goodman, "Skepticism", ''Review of Metaphysics'' 36:819–848, 1983. * Jonathan Barnes, ''The Toils of Scepticism'', Cambridge, 1990. {{skepticism 1st-century Greek philosophers Roman-era Skeptic philosophers Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Ancient Greek epistemologists Pyrrhonism

The five modes of Agrippa

See also

Notes

Bibliography