This month the Lucretius Today podcast has continued its series on Book Two of Cicero's Academic Questions. Edited transcripts and summaries of each episode are on the site.
The skeptics' favorite weapon in these sections is the Sorites, or "heap," argument: if no one can name the exact grain that turns a pile of sand into a heap, how can any line between classes of things be real? The episodes show how Epicurus charts a course between the Stoics' appeal to god-given certainty and the skeptics' total doubt. A wolf will kill you and a dog will not. That difference is real, and the senses, anticipations and feelings are enough to know it, even if no one can draw an infinitely precise boundary. The same is true of happiness.
- Episode 351 - Heap Big Trouble For The Stoic-Platonic Approach To Knowledge
- Episode 352 - Dogs, Wolves, And What Is That In Sheeps' Clothing?
- Episode 353 - "The Worthless Argument Of Those Men Who Wish To Throw Everything Into Confusion"
All episodes can be found in the "Lucretius Today Podcast" menu in the left navigation sidebar.