European contacts with India

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Stephen Hodge wrote:

     Dr Fosse wrote:
     > Why do we have to suppose a flow of ideas in the connection with
     > skepticism? Skeptics have been found everywhere, I believe, since
     times
     > immemorial.

     True but there are quite specific features of Pyrrhonism and
     Madhyamika in common over and above mere skepticism that have led to
     the theory that there was some sort of direct contact.  There was an
     article in the Philosophy East & West sometime in the 80s which went
     into this in detail.  My back numbers are all in storage so I regret I
     can't give you the exact reference.

I see three possible objections


  1. The Greek-Roman skeptic tradition claims to stand on his own feet
  2. their skeptic arguments are alike but not the same as Nagarjuna's, they have a
     distinct flavor and form
  3. it's an unnecessary hypothesis and so must be cut by Occams razor

I agree with Dr Fosse: it's very unlikely that only Indian philosophers could come up with
the idea of skepticism. We know that many older Greek philosophers (PE the sofists)
already had caught the drift and it's a very logical reaction against Platonic dogmatism.

Regards

Erik Hoogcarspel


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