Summary: Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Scepticism, the idea that it may be impossible to know anything with complete certainty. Socrates is reported to have said that the only thing he knew for certain was that he knew nothing. Scepticism was taken up by later philosophers and came to the fore during the Renaissance, especially in the work of Descartes and Montaigne. Its ideas went on to have a powerful influence on the religious and scientific debates of the Enlightenment. Melvyn Bragg is joined by Peter Millican, Professor of Philosophy at Hertford College, Oxford; Melissa Lane, Professor of Politics at Princeton University and Jill Kraye, Professor of the History of Renaissance Philosophy and Librarian at the Warburg Institute, University of London.
