THE PHILOSOPHY OF SEXTUS

[Some animals] live [on one thing], others eat seeds, some are meat-eaters, and for others, the food is milk. Furthermore, some delight in decayed food, others in fresh; some in raw food, and others in that which is prepared by cooks. In short, whatever is pleasant to one is unpleasant, dangerous, or even deadly to another. For example, hemlock original: cicuta; a highly poisonous plant famously used to execute Socrates. fattens quails, just as henbane original: hyoscyamus; a toxic plant in the nightshade family. fattens pigs. Indeed, pigs also enjoy eating salamanders, just as deer eat venomous animals, and swallows eat blister beetles original: cantharidas; toxic beetles often used in ancient medicine but poisonous in large amounts.. Furthermore, ants and gnats bring pain and colic to humans if they are swallowed; but if a bear begins to suffer from any illness, it is strengthened by eating these very insects most greedily. A viper, if even a single branch of a beech tree touches it, is overcome with dizziness; the same happens to a bat if it is touched by the leaf of a plane tree. Moreover, the elephant flees from the ram, the lion from the rooster, sea monsters from the sound of crushed beans, and the tiger from the sound of a drum. Other examples of this kind could be added; but lest we seem to linger on these longer than is fitting: if the same things are pleasant to some and unpleasant to others, and if pleasure and displeasure reside in the mental impression original: phantasia; the way an object "appears" or "presents itself" to the mind through the senses., then diverse impressions are produced in animals by the objects before them.

But if the same things appear different because of the variety of animals, we will be able to describe what the object itself appears to be to us, but we will withhold assent original: assensum retinebimus; the Skeptic practice of epoché, or suspending judgment, when faced with contradictory evidence. regarding what it is by nature. For we ourselves will not be able to judge between our own impressions and those of other animals, since we are ourselves a part of the discrepancy. Therefore, we are more in need of someone else to judge us than being capable of performing that judgment ourselves. Furthermore, we cannot prefer our own impressions to the impressions of other animals either without a demonstration or with one. For as we shall teach, to prove that a demonstration original: demonstratio; a formal logical proof. does or does not exist, the evidence used will either be apparent to us or not apparent. If it is not apparent, we shall not accept it with any certain persuasion; but if it appears to us, then since the very question at hand is about...