This volume contains a translation into clear modern English of an unjustly neglected work by Sextus Empiricus, together with introduction and extensive commentary. Sextus is our main source for the doctrines and arguments of ancient Scepticism; in Against the Ethicists he sets out a distinctive Sceptic position in ethics.

This volume contains a new translation of Against the Ethicists, together with an introduction and extensive commentary. Those who have discussed this work in the past have tended to underestimate it, regarding its main position as essentially the same as that of Sextus's better-known Outlines of Pyrrhonism. Richard Bett shows that this text proposes a distinct and previously unnoticed philosophical outlook, associated with a phase of Pyrrhonian Scepticism earlier than Sextus himself.

Sextus' work Against the Ethicists has long suffered from a lack of consideration by students of Pyrrhonism. Richard Bett's meticulous translation and commentary sets out to rectify this scholarly discourtesy by a careful analysis of Sextus' arguments and an accurate and concise exposition of his opponents' doctrines. Bett's treatment of textual matters.. is a model of concision. His grasp and presentation of the mainly Stoic doctrines dealt with... appears unerring... every student of Pyrrhonism will want this commentary for its detailed criticisms of Sextus' arguments.