Outlines of Pyrrhonism

...these things (to speak more generally) occur through the mutual opposition of things. These oppositions are between appearances and appearances, or between intellectual concepts Latin: intellectualia; things perceived by the mind and reason rather than the senses. and intellectual concepts, or interchanged between the two.

We see oppositions between appearances and appearances when we say, for example: "The same tower appears round to someone looking from a distance, but square to someone looking from close by."

Oppositions between intellectual concepts occur, for instance, when someone infers the existence of divine providence The Stoic belief that a divine, rational force governs the universe for the best. from the orderly arrangement of the heavens; we oppose this by noting that good people often experience misfortune while the wicked prosper, and from this we infer that there is no providence.

We also oppose intellectual concepts to appearances, as Anaxagoras Anaxagoras (c. 500–428 BCE) was a Pre-Socratic philosopher who famously argued that because snow is made of water, and water is dark, snow must "truly" be dark despite its appearance. did: to the proposition that "snow is white," he opposed the reasoning that snow is frozen water, and water is dark; therefore, snow is also dark.

In another sense, we sometimes oppose present things to present things, as in the examples just mentioned, and sometimes we oppose present things to past or future things. For example, when someone proposes an argument to us that we cannot solve, we say to him: "Just as before the founder of the sect to which you belong was born, the words that flow from that sect did not yet seem to be true—and yet, according to nature, they existed in the reality of things—so also it is possible that words contrary to those you propose to me exist in the reality of nature, though they are not yet apparent to us. Therefore, it is not yet necessary for us to agree to this proposition which currently seems to rely on a valid reason."

So that these oppositions may be placed more exactly before our eyes, I will also propose the "modes" by which suspension of judgment epoche: the state of mind where one neither denies nor affirms a claim, leading to mental tranquility. is gathered. I make no firm claim regarding either the number or the authority of these modes, for it is possible that they are weak, or that there are more than those I will list.

On the Ten Modes of Suspension of Judgment. CHAPTER 14.

Ten modes are traditionally passed down by the older Sceptics by which suspension of judgment seems to be gathered. These are called both "arguments" and "patterns" original: "λόγοι" (logoi) and "τύποι" (typoi)—different words, but used with the same meaning by them. They are as follows:

The first is based on the variety of animals...