Outlines of Pyrrhonism

Page 5

A. iii.

...it would be), but I was spreading the crime of one person to all, to such an extent that I no longer thought I should be on guard only against the traps of Pindaric Referring to the complex and difficult works of the Greek poet Pindar. or similar books, but I held all of them, to a man, suspect. In this matter, that which the most ingenious poet The Roman poet Ovid, in his Epistulae ex Ponto. sings happened to me:

Since I was so affected in my mind, and had decided to renounce almost all books (the reading of which required some mental effort) and almost declare war on them, I think the reason why I finally returned to favor with the books of the Sceptics rather than any others was this: I hoped that by frequently reading their refutations of the professors of all the arts, I would harden my mind more and more in that hatred. In that very hatred, however, I placed my hope of health; for I believed that if I continued in the study of literature, what remained of my life would be unlivable original: "ἀβίωτον" (abiōton), a Greek term meaning a life not worth living. for me. This, my dear Henri, is the explanation I can offer for that marvelous metamorphosis, while I await a better one from you.

But to finally begin to speak seriously: Scepticism was so far from hardening my mind in that hatred against literature, that it rather reconciled me with it through a certain impasse original: "ἀπορία" (aporia), a state of philosophical confusion or a "dead end" that triggers further inquiry.. And certainly, to now reveal my mind freely and candidly, I by no means praise this Sceptic of ours Sextus Empiricus, the author of the work Estienne is translating. for misusing the sharpness of his talent in refuting the dogmatists Philosophers who claim to have discovered the absolute truth., not only in those things which they said poorly, but even in those which they said rightly. For my part, I am not telling what ought to have been done, but what was done. Although if one must choose the lesser of two evils, the idle suspension of judgment original: "epoche," the core Sceptic practice of withholding assent to any non-evident proposition. of the Sceptics regarding certain questions might deservedly seem more tolerable than the impudent and rash assertion of certain dogmatists. I speak, however, of those disputations through which...