Agrippa (philosopher)

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Agrippa ( Greek Ἀγρίππας Agríppas ; also called Agrippa the Skeptic ) was an ancient skeptical philosopher . He probably lived in the 1st century BC. Or in the 1st century AD

Life and teaching

All that is known of Agrippa is that he lived after Aenesidemus, a contemporary of Cicero . According to Diogenes Laertios , he is the author of five tropes of skepticism. Each of the tropics is a reason why nothing is definitely provable and every claim is doubtful. The five tropes are explained in detail by Sextus Empiricus in his main work, The Floor Plan of the Pyrrhonic Skepticism :

  1. Tropos: Dissent : Philosophers are always at odds over all possible assertions, there is no consensus and no reliable teaching authority.
  2. Tropos: Regress ad infinitum : Every sentence requires a justification, which requires a justification, which in turn requires a justification, but which requires a justification, for which a justification is necessary, but which can be doubted, so that it requires a justification, which but cannot do without a justification, which in turn makes a justification necessary ...
  3. Tropos: Relativity : Uncertainty due to the possibility that the context of an object or the point of view of the viewer will change.
  4. Tropos: Dogmatic setting : The regress ad infinitum from Tropos 2 is broken off somewhere by simply claiming from the last reason that it must be unquestionably true, even if it is not.
  5. Tropos: Circular conclusion : The regress ad infinitum from Tropos 2 is bent by giving a reason somewhere, but this is the starting sentence that should be justified first.

Impact history

The five tropics of Agrippa are philosophically relevant to this day. Tropics 2, 4 and 5 were reused by Hans Albert and, as the Münchhausen Trilemma, form one of the basic ideas of critical rationalism .

Tropos 1 is an objection that was raised against, among other things, discourse theory , which seeks to install consensus as a basic ethical principle.

Arguments analogous to Tropos 3 can be found as criticism of scientific experiments.

Attempts to avoid the five tropes such as the Münchhausen Trilemma are final justifications , for example through negative evidence , a performative self-contradiction , or the hermeneutic circle . There is dissent among philosophers as to whether these attempts are convincing (see Tropos 1).

literature

  • Françoise Caujolle-Zaslawsky: Agrippa. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 1, CNRS, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-222-04042-6 , pp. 71-72

Footnotes

  1. ↑ For the dating see Françoise Caujolle-Zaslawsky: Agrippa. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 1, Paris 1989, pp. 71-72, here: 72.
  2. ^ Diogenes Laertius , Lives and Opinions of Famous Philosophers IX 88.
personal data
SURNAME Agrippa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ἀγρίππας (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION skeptical philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century
DATE OF DEATH 1st century or 2nd century