Over 1,500 years before David Hume, John Locke, and George Berkeley questioned the nature of knowledge and advocated for empiricism, Sextus Empiricus challenged the validity of induction and the extent to which we can be assured of what we know. As a Pyrrhonian skeptic, Sextus never denied the possibility of obtaining knowledge, but he refused to trust any senses or beliefs as a confirmation or an indication of knowledge. Thus, he advocated that the suspension of judgment was the only means of acquiring peace of mind. Sextus recorded the practices of Pyrrhonian skepticism in Outlines of Pyrrhonism, and his writings make up the most complete account of ancient Greek and Roman skepticism surviving today. While the ambiguous origins of Sextus Empiricus himself are still debated, his writings are undeniably valuable to scholars of philosophy and skepticism.
The Works of Sextus Empiricus includes Outlines of Pyrrhonism, Against Logicians, Against Physicists. Against Ethicists, and Against Professors. With these writings, Sextus Empiricus calls into question every academic school of thought and redefines what we can truly know.
This collection contains the complete texts in their Loeb Classical Library editions. Each text includes the original Greek and an English translation for easy side-by-side comparison. Logos’ language tools allow you to go deeper into the Greek text and explore Sextus’ elegant language. Use the dictionary lookup tool to examine difficult English words used by the translator. Students of literature, history, and philosophy will enjoy these works and appreciate their significance.