Patrick - Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticism

The following treatise on Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticism has been prepared to supply a need much felt in the English language by students of Greek philosophy. For while other schools of Greek philosophy have been exhaustively and critically discussed by English scholars, there are few sources of information available to the student who wishes to make himself familiar with the teachings of Pyrrhonism. The aim has been, accordingly, to give a concise presentation of Pyrrhonism in relation to its historical development and the Scepticism of the Academy, with critical references to the French and German works existing on the subject. The time and manner of the connection of Sextus Empiricus with the Pyrrhonean School has also been discussed.

As the First Book of the Hypotyposes, or Pyrrhonic Sketches by Sextus Empiricus, contains the substance of the teachings of Pyrrhonism, it has been hoped that a translation of it into English might prove a useful contribution to the literature on Pyrrhonism, and this translation has been added to the critical part of the work.

In making this translation, and in the general study of the works of Sextus, the Greek text of Immanuel Bekker, Berlin, 1842, has been used, with frequent consultation of the text of J.A. Fabricius, 1718, which was taken directly from the existing manuscripts of the works of Sextus. The divisions into chapters, with the headings of the chapters in the translation, is the same as Fabricius gives from the manuscripts, although not used by Bekker, and the numbers of the paragraphs are the same as those given by both Fabricius and Bekker. References to Diogenes Laertius and other ancient works have been carefully verified.

The principal modern authors consulted are the following:

Ritter, Geschichte der Philosophie, II. Auf., Hamburg, 183638.

Zeller, Philosophie der Griechen, III. Auf., Leipzig, 187989.

Lewes, History of Philosophy, Vol. I., London, 1866.

Ueberweg, History of Philosophy, IV. ed., translated by Morris, 1871.

Brochard, Les Sceptiques Grecs, Paris, 1877.

Brochard, Pyrrhon et le Scepticism Primitive, No. 5, Ribot's Revue Phil., Paris, 1885.

Saisset, Le Scepticism Aensidme-Pascal-Kant, Paris, 1867.

Chaignet, Histoire de la Psychologie des Grecs, Paris, 1887-90.

Haas, Leben des Sextus Empiricus, Burghausen, 1882.

Natorp, Forschungen zur Geschichte des Erkenntnisproblems bei den Alten, Berlin, 1884.

Hirzel, Untersuchungen zu Cicero's philosophischen Schriften, Leipzig, 1877-83.

Pappenheim, Erluterung zu des Sextus Empiricus Pyrrhoneischen Grundzgen, Heidelberg, 1882.

Pappenheim, Die Tropen der Greichischen Skeptiker, Berlin, 1885.

Pappenheim, Lebensverhltnisse des Sextus Empiricus, Berlin, 1887.

Pappenheim, Der angebliche Heraclitismus des Skeptikers Ainesidemos, Berlin, 1887.

Pappenheim, Der Sitz der Schule der Griechischen Skeptiker, Archiv fr Geschichte der Philosophie, I. 1, S. 47, 1887.

Maccoll, The Greek Sceptics from Pyrrho to Sextus, London, 1869.

My grateful acknowledgments are due to Dr. Ludwig Stein, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Bern, for valuable assistance in relation to the plan of the work and advice in regard to the best authorities to be consulted. Thanks are also due to Dr. Louisos Iliou, of Robert College, Constantinople, for kind suggestions concerning the translation.

Interest has revived in the works of Sextus Empiricus in recent times, especially, one may say, since the date of Herbart. There is much in the writings of Sextus that finds a parallel in the methods of modern philosophy. There is a common starting-point in the study of the power and limitations of human thought. There is a common desire to investigate the phenomena of sense-perception, and the genetic relations of man to the lower animals, and a common interest in the theory of human knowledge.

While, however, some of the pages of Sextus' works would form a possible introduction to certain lines of modern philosophical thought, we cannot carry the analogy farther, for Pyrrhonism as a whole lacked the essential element of all philosophical progress, which is a belief in the possibility of finding and establishing the truth in the subjects investigated.

Before beginning a critical study of the writings of Sextus Empiricus, and the light which they throw on the development of Greek Scepticism, it is necessary to make ourselves somewhat familiar with the environment in which he lived and wrote. We shall thus be able to comprehend more fully the standpoint from which he regarded philosophical questions.