Output details

Ancient Self-Refutation: The Logic and History of the Self-Refutation Argument from Democritus to Augustine.

Some of the material was published in preliminary form before 2008. Excluding bibliography and indexes, the book is 361 pages, in 3 parts. Part I (pp. 17-129) is a substantially expanded version of an article published in 2007 (‘Everything is true, Everything is False: Self-Refutation Arguments from Democritus to Augustine’, Antiqvorvm Philosophia 1: 11-74) which was part of Castagnoli’s RAE 2008 submission. One of the sections of Part III (pp. 251-295) is a substantially revised and improved version of material published in 2000 (‘Self-bracketing Pyrrhonism’, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 18: 263-328) and was never submitted to any research assessment exercise.

Ancient Self-Refutation brings together the results of ten years of research: it collects and analyses a large body of ancient texts from the 5th century BC (Democritus, Dissoi Logoi) to the 5th century AD (Augustine). The analysis of self-refutation arguments required not only careful handling of logical and analytical tools, but also extensive study of the textual and historical context in which those arguments were used. A vast body of secondary literature was consulted, and detailed critical engagement with it emerges throughout the book.