Analysis challenges the metacognitive interpretation of Sextan suspension, suggesting it reflects an affective state instead.
What kind of mental state is suspension, according to Sextus Empiricus? Recently, this question has been addressed by attributing to Sextus a metacognitive account of suspension (Dunphy Citation2023). Roughly, this means that, for Sextus, suspension constitutively involves a particular attitude – namely, a higher-order belief about one's own epistemic standing. This reading clashes with the standard view, on which Sextan suspension is not a distinctive doxastic attitude. In this paper I challenge that revisionary interpretation and use it as a springboard to argue that Sextan suspension should instead be understood as a kind of affective state.
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Benoit Guilielmo (2025) studied this question.
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