Peirce and Ancient Scepticism

Abstract

The marking of problematic relationships between Peircean pragmatism and scepticism, noted by his contemporaries as by ours, is all the more complicated than the label of scepticism remains vague. The task doesn’t first appear simpler once the label is restricted to its understanding to the Ancient versions: differences vanish as emerges a common agreement on the therapeutic role of philosophy, the infinitely inferential character of thought and on the indubitability of perceptions. The parallelism can be drawn up to the end aimed at by the two paths, both pretending to assure a rational self-control. It highlights then the point on which they diverge, as the sceptic decides for suspension while the pragmatist chooses to keep on inquiry with the hope of infinite growth, which he has then to rescue from sceptical doubts.