Description
Cicero, Skepticism, and the Power of Doubt: Lessons for a Meaningful Life
Massimo Pigliucci introduces his new book, How to Be a (Happy) Skeptic, outlining Cicero's historical impact and his blend of Academic skepticism with Stoic ethics. Pigliucci explains skepticism as inquiry centered on the question "How do you know that?" — arguing that sense experience and reason are both fallible, so beliefs should be held with degrees of probability rather than certainty. He draws on Carneades' concept of the pithanon and Cicero's Latin translation, probabilis. He describes Cicero's eclectic method and "skeptical Stoic" stance, acknowledges Cicero's human flaws and courage at death, and previews the book's eight guiding questions on citizenship, truth, justice, friendship, grief, aging, pain, death, and living philosophically. He also highlights De Officiis on civic virtue, On Divination as a critique of pseudoscience (including astrology), and Cicero's reflections on friendship, grief, and mortality.
00:00 Intro New Book
00:22 Why Cicero Matters
02:23 Skepticism And Epistemology
05:30 Fallible Senses And Reason
07:20 Degrees Of Probability
11:34 Skeptical Stoic Ethics
14:32 Cicero Failures And Courage
17:58 Eight Questions Curriculum
18:34 On Duties Citizenship
20:52 On Divination Pseudoscience
25:02 Friendship Grief And Death
29:39 Personal Loss Closing
About Massimo Pigliucci
Massimo Pigliucci is the K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York, where his work spans the philosophy of science, the nature of pseudoscience, and applied Stoicism. He holds three doctoral degrees — in genetics, evolutionary biology, and philosophy — and has published more than 190 technical papers across both fields. His books include How to Be a Stoic, A Field Guide to a Happy Life, and Beyond Stoicism, and his forthcoming How to Be a (Happy) Skeptic: Cicero's Case for Doubt in an Age of Certainty brings Cicero's philosophy of doubt to bear on modern life. He writes the "Art of Living" column for Philosophy Now and publishes regularly at his Substack, Figs in Winter.
links:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/806907/how-to-be-a-happy-skeptic-by-massimo-pigliucci/
https://figsinwintertime.substack.com
https://massimopigliucci.net
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