Ricerc@Sapienza

From a methodological point of view and notwithstanding the very difficult task for anyone who decides to work on the skinny remains offered by the papyrus containing the XXXIV Book of Epicurus’s On Nature, it seems to be neither vain nor improductive to try to dismantle some previous hypotheses and at the same time to advance new ideas about his alleged sceptical target in that work. After discussing and discarding the candidatures of Pyrrho (who was not a Pyrrhonian, namely a Sceptic in the full sense of this label, indeed) and Arcesilaus (especially for chronological reasons), as well as possible polemical attacks against some of Democritus’s important followers (as for example Metrodorus and Nausiphanes), the paper focuses on Timon as likely target of some specific arguments presented by Epicurus in this book and intended to reinforce the crucial value and role of sensations for any correct approach to epistemological questions.