SEXTUS EMPIRICUS

PYRRHONIAN OUTLINES

IN THREE BOOKS

THE FIRST.

SEXTUS EMPIRICUS

PYRRHONIAN

OUTLINES

OR INSTITUTIONS

BOOK ONE.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE PRIMARY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PHILOSOPHERS.

For those who seek any matter, it is natural that the result be either a discovery, or a denial of discovery and an admission of non-comprehension, or a persistence in the search. 2. Wherefore, perhaps even regarding the things sought in Philosophy, some have claimed to have found the truth, others have declared that it is not possible for this to be apprehended, and others still seek. 3. Those who believe they have found it are those specifically called Dogmatists, such as those around Aristotle, and Epicurus, and the Stoics, and some others. Those who have declared it to be inapprehensible are those around Clitomachus and Carneades, and other Academics; but the Sceptics continue to seek. 4. Whence it is reasonable that the three highest and most general types of philoso-

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A Outlines] original: Hypotyposeon Sextus seems to have borrowed this title from Aenesidemus, whose Outline of Pyrrhonism is mentioned by Diogenes Laertius (IX. 78) and Aristocles in Eusebius (XIV. 18). A hypotyposis is a sketch or brief instruction, which is done as if "in a mold" original: hōs en typō or "schematically," as Suidas says regarding definitions; it is opposed to a more accurate and fuller treatment, as was observed long ago by the great Casaubon in his notes on Theophrastus’s On Irony. Thus, Sextus frequently denies that he can pursue individual points at length because of his "aim, character, and the style of the hypotyptic writing," and because he has resolved to deliver everything "hypotyptically," that is, as he says below in Chapter 14, "in a concise discourse" original: syntomō logō and briefly. Accordingly, he joins the terms "briefly and hypotyptically" at the threshold of the second book. Simplicius, in his commentary on the Categories (p. 19b), also opposes "hypotyptic teaching" to "more accurate tradition." Hence Proclus titled his astronomical compendium An Outline of Astronomical Hypotheses. Also among the writings of Galen, though extant only in Latin, there is a Sketch of the Empiric School, a concise outline of the Empiric sect. Likewise, Clement of Alexandria, a Presbyter, had written eight books of Outlines, a word which Rufinus, in his translation of Eusebius's Church History, interprets as "informations," others as "institutions"—not absurdly, for these too ought to be brief and concise. And Dionysius, the so-called Areopagite, in Chapter 3 of Mystical Theology, mentions his own work On Theological Outlines. St. Paul also uses the word hypotyposis for a succinct and clear "pattern" or "form" in 1 Timothy 1:16 and 2 Timothy 1:13.

B in three books] original: tōn eis tria Just as the division of chapters and titles are not by the author himself, so Sextus himself undoubtedly divided his work into three books; hence he calls the third book the "third composition" original: triton syntagma below in III. 31. Nor does he refer to any other work when he cites his own Pyrrhonian Commentaries or Sceptical Works, and in Book 7 Against the Mathe-

CHAPTER I.

ON THE SUPREME DIFFERENCE WHICH INTERCEDES UNIVERSALLY AMONG PHILOSOPHERS.

Whoever seeks any thing, it is agreed that they eventually arrive at this point: that they either find it, or they deny that it can be found by them and confess it cannot be grasped, or they persevere in its investigation. 2. For this reason, perhaps even in those things which are sought concerning Philosophy, some have said they have found the truth, others have pronounced it to be of such a kind that it cannot be grasped, and others truly continue to seek. 3. Those who seem to themselves to have found it are they who are called by the specific name Dogmatists, such as Aristotle, Epicurus, and the Stoics, and certain others. Moreover, Clitomachus, Carneades, and the rest of the Academics have asserted that it cannot be grasped. But the Sceptics are seeking even now. 4. Whence it is deservedly thought that there are three general kinds of philoso-

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maticians: "of which we have set forth the former part in our work On the Sceptical Way."

C seeking any matter] original: Tois zētousi ti pragma The Savile manuscript reads "what the matter is" original: ti to pragma. In others, the "the" original: to is more correctly omitted.

D or a denial of discovery and an admission of non-comprehension] These must be joined together, as they constitute one kind of philosophy, which the Academics professed; it is opposed no less to the Dogmatists (who said they had found and knew the truth) than to the Sceptics (who are perpetually seeking). In the Breslau original: Uratislaviensi manuscript, for the purpose of illustrating the present chapter, this little note was added:

The Philosophies:
Dogmatic, Academic, Sceptic.

H. Stephanus, and Samuel Sorberius following him in the French version of the first chapters, interpreted Sextus's words as if four kinds of philosophy were distinguished: either they find it, or they deny it was found by them, or they confess it cannot be grasped by them, or they persevere in its investigation. However, I preferred to translate "denial of discovery" as "they deny it can be found by them," because the Sceptics also denied what was found "without opinion" original: adoxōs, or even doubted it, and Sextus makes this second kind distinct from the Sceptics.

E those around Clitomachus and Carneades] See below in this book, chapter 33.

F the Sceptics] In this the Sceptics differed equally from the Dogmatists and the Academics: the Dogmatists thought they undoubtedly knew and certainly perceived many things; the Academics, on the contrary, with no less stubbornness, denied that anything could be known or grasped, and thus they were in this very thing a kind of opposite genus to the Dogmatists. But the Sceptics, as about all things, so also about this very point, professed that they doubt whether they know nothing or whether they can know: not yet...