Sextus Empiricus Quotes on Knowledge
Sextus Empiricus (fl. late 2nd century AD), the Pyrrhonist physician-philosopher whose Outlines of Pyrrhonism and the longer Adversus Mathematicos preserve the most extensive surviving systematic statement of ancient skepticism, transmitted to the Latin West through the early-modern translations the body of arguments that would shape the skeptical revival of Montaigne, Descartes, Bayle, and Hume. The Pyrrhonist programme is presented as a therapeutic rather than a doctrinal one: the systematic juxtaposition of opposing arguments and appearances issues in the suspension of judgment (epochē), and that suspension yields the tranquility (ataraxia) that constitutes the practical good of the skeptical life.
Quotes
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Attributed to Sextus Empiricus:
“Suspension of judgement is a state of mental rest, owing to which we neither deny nor affirm anything.”
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Attributed to Sextus Empiricus:
“We oppose appearances to appearances, or thoughts to thoughts, or alternately appearances to thoughts.”
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Attributed to Sextus Empiricus:
“The end of skepticism is tranquillity.”
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Attributed to Sextus Empiricus:
“To every account an equal account is opposed.”
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Attributed to Sextus Empiricus:
“We do not seek to overturn what is presented as the experience of others.”
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Attributed to Sextus Empiricus:
“The Skeptic, in fact, had the same experience which is said to have befallen the painter Apelles, who, despairing of representing the foam of his subject, threw his sponge at the picture and produced the very effect he had failed to achieve.”
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“Pyrrhonic Sketches , as translated by Mary Mills Patrick (1899)”
It is probable that those who seek after anything whatever, will either find it as they continue the search, will deny that it can be found and confess it to be out of reach, or will go on seeking it. Some have said, accordingly, in regard to the things sought in philosophy, that they have found the truth, while others have declared it impossible to find, and still others continue to seek it. Thos -
“Sextus Empiricus quoted in Introduction to Logic by Paul Herrick (2013)”
If Socrates died, then either he died when he was living, or when he was dead. But he couldn't have died when he was living, for he was not dead when he was living. But he couldn't have died when he was dead, for when he was dead he had already died. Therefore, Socrates never died. -
“Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism , circa 160-210 CE”
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