The Mode of Disagreement

Abstract

This chapter distinguishes between two different principles (consistent with Sextus’ text) that connect the phenomenon of disagreement with the suspension of judgement and—correspondingly—two different versions of the mode of disagreement. It argues that one version, which turns on the phenomenon of peer disagreement, is a dogmatic version of the mode insofar as only the sceptic’s dogmatic opponent can come to suspend judgement on the basis of it. The other version, which turns on the phenomenon of evidentially undecided disagreement, is a version of the mode on the basis of which a sceptic might come to suspend judgement. This is because it is one and the same thing to suspend judgement on the basis of an evidentially undecided disagreement as it is to suspend judgement on the basis of a pair of equipollent arguments.