Isosthenia
Isosthenia (Gr. Ἰσοσθένεια isostheneia = equivalency) is a key term in skepticism and means the equality of conflicting arguments in a philosophical discussion.
The role of isosthenia within skeptical arguments was already emphasized by the representatives of the Pyrrhonic skepticism in antiquity and described in detail by Sextus Empiricus in the outline of the Pyrrhonic skepticism .
The skeptics, when discussing any philosophical question, start from pros and cons of conflicting arguments. With the help of certain argumentation techniques, the tropics , the skeptics show that it is fundamentally not possible to find a better reason for one of the arguments discussed than for all the others. Rather, all arguments seem equally well founded, since every argument is opposed to an equivalent one. The skeptical discussion therefore always ends in an argumentative stalemate: the undecidability of the conflict based on arguments of equal value, which is referred to as isosthenia .
The induction of isosthenia is the goal of skeptical reasoning. According to the skeptics, it follows from isostheny that one must abstain from judgment (skeptical attitude of the epoché ).
literature
- Sextus Empiricus: Outline of the Pyrrhonic Skepticism. Introduced and trans. by Malte Hossenfelder. 2nd edition, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-518-28099-6 .
