Carly Henline

Phill 1000
April 7, 2021
Philosophy in The Wild 3
Overview Information:

Main Philosophers/Ideas: Skepticism by “Sextus Empiricus”

“A philosophical school of thought that doubts that knowledge is possible, in general, or in

particular fields.” (Jane Drexler, Module 8, lecture video 2)

The Example:

My sister, Rachel, and I tend to have a lot of late-night conversations. They mostly consist of existential
questions, that we seldom find the answers to.

Explanation
Little is known of Sextus Empiricus’ life. Empiricus is not his given last name either, he was
given that name because he belonged to the Empirical School of Medicine (Morison, 2019). He
believed that you must question every possibility to find the final answer. “Skeptics have not yet
found answers to those questions, because they are still investigating them. It follows that to
be a Skeptic is not to subscribe to a set of beliefs in the way that members of the other
Philosophical Schools do. Yet there must be something about them that makes them count as
Skeptics. What, then, is Skepticism? Sextus’ answer is that it is an ability or skill (I 8), not a
set of beliefs.” (Morison, 2019) Being a skeptic is defined as “a person who doubts the truth
or value of an idea or belief” (Cambridge Dictionary). The purpose of being a skeptic is not to
doubt that everything is real. Instead, it is meant to help us understand things further.
My sister and I usually have long debates on what our perception of reality might be. Rachel’s
mind always wanders to the idea that we could not exist. We all could be part of an in-depth
dream that a mighty figure could be thinking about. If we truly do just exist while we are alive or
if there is some sort of afterlife. We talk about how if there will be an afterlife, why don’t we
remember experiences we had before being on Earth. We both doubt if what we can see is there.
If it could all be part of a large illusion.
I have come to learn through this course that thinking this way is a form of Philosophy. This
thinking is mostly skeptic-based but has underlying questions that we may never know the true
answers to. There are times when being a skeptic could be considered a bad thing, but for us to
learn valuable lessons we need to be able to question the information that is given to us.
Commentary/Questions:
This is not something new, but I feel that being a skeptic helps us to continue learning. If we
always accept the first answer we are given, we could get things wrong. This could be considered
harmful in certain career paths. Especially ones such as the medical field, or laboratory settings.
If I were going to investigate this topic further, I would turn to the Salt Lake Community College
Library. Many academic journals help us to learn more about Sextus’ life and the idea of
skepticism. There are also many lecture videos on YouTube that go into more detail on the
theory.

Work Cited:

 Morison, B. (2019, July 12). Sextus Empiricus. Retrieved April 08, 2021, from
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sextus-empiricus/

 Cambridge Dictionary. (n.d.). Skeptic. Retrieved April 08, 2021, from

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/skeptic