In this episode, Caleb talks with Massimo Pigliucci about his new book, How to Be a Happy Skeptic, and the thinker at its center: Cicero. They trace skepticism from Pyrrho’s radical doubt to the Academics, who found a better path. You don’t need certainty. You need to know how sure to be, then act (or not).
The Stoics and skeptics argued for decades over whether truth leaves a mark you can trust. What happens when you admit you might be wrong?
Read How to Be a (Happy) Skeptic.
(03:00) Pyrrhonism: suspend judgment, find peace
(06:50) The Academics go back to Socrates
(08:40) Fallibilism: senses and reason both fail
(10:20) Carneades and the degrees of probability
(18:00) Skeptics versus Stoics: the cataleptic impression
(22:20) Certainty, polarization, and the case for doubt
(25:30) Cicero, friend and critic of the Stoics
(27:00) On Divination: the first book against pseudoscience
(31:40) On Ends and the gift of aporia
(37:00) Virtue, friendship, and the good life
(41:50) Seneca and skeptical Stoicism
(44:50) Cicero’s life and death
(55:40) Being useful to others
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Thanks to Michael Levy for graciously letting us use his music in the conversations:
