Philosophy Atlas
Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists
have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which
expertise the answer needs.
These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows
only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where
the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the
hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither
one settles it alone.
Grouped by the shape of the gap rather than its subject: what sort of thing is unresolved.
Showing 21 to 23 of 23 open questions, page 2 of 2.
textual 1
Recorded as unresolved.
The Nicomachean Ethics
Which Work Did the Common Books of the Nicomachean and Eudemian Ethics Originally Belong To?
Open The Nicomachean Ethics
Why It Is Open Books V, VI and VII of the Nicomachean Ethics are word for word identical to Books IV, V and VI of Aristotle's other ethical treatise, the Eudemian Ethics. Wikipedia's own background section names two competing explanations still in circulation: that three books were lost from the Nicomachean Ethics and replaced with the parallel Eudemian material, or that an editor rather than Aristotle himself gave both works their current shape, without resolving between them.
What Would Settle It A manuscript tradition or independent ancient testimony establishing which treatise originally contained the shared material, or a stylistic analysis accepted across Aristotle scholarship, would settle which work the common books belong to.
Expertise Needed Aristotle scholarship (textual transmission)
Question posed in
Nicomachean Ethics (Wikipedia), Wikipedia, Nicomachean Ethics, Background section.
Not Yet Classified 2
Recorded as unresolved.
Cynicism
Did Cynicism Have a Single Founder and Founding Moment?
Open Cynicism
Why It Is Open Unlike Plato's Academy or Zeno's Stoa, Cynicism is not attested as a formally organized school with one identifiable founder, founding place or fixed set of doctrines; ancient sources give rival, uncertain traditions crediting Antisthenes, Diogenes of Sinope, or both, and it is not even certain the two men ever met.
What Would Settle It A firmer body of contemporary ancient testimony fixing a specific founding teacher, place and date, which the surviving sources do not provide and later doxography likely cannot supply.
Expertise Needed History of ancient philosophy
Question posed in
Cynicism (Encyclopedia of Philosophy via Encyclopedia.com).
Pyrrhonism
Can a Pyrrhonian Skeptic Act Without Belief?
Open Pyrrhonism
Why It Is Open Critics ancient and modern have charged that suspending judgment on all matters makes purposeful action impossible; Sextus Empiricus answered that skeptics act by following appearances, but scholars remain divided on whether that answer itself smuggles in belief, and interpretation of Sextus's own position is, in the Stanford Encyclopedia's own words, quite controversial.
What Would Settle It A consensus reading of Sextus Empiricus's account of following appearances that scholars agree either does or does not amount to holding beliefs, which decades of interpretive work have not settled.
Expertise Needed Epistemology
Question posed in
Ancient Skepticism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).