"For this alone of all the medical sects, does not proceed
rashly it seems to me, in regard to unknown things, and does not
presume to say whether they are comprehensible or not, but it is
guided by phenomena.[2] It will thus be seen that the Methodical
School of medicine has a certain relationship to Scepticism
which is closer than that of the other medical sects."[3]
[1] _Hyp_. I. 236.
[2] _Hyp_. I. 237.
[3] _Hyp_. I. 241.
We know from the testimony of Sextus himself that he was a
physician. In one case he uses the first person for himself as a
physician,[1] and in another he speaks of Asclepius as "the
founder of our science,"[2] and all his illustrations show a
breadth and variety of medical knowledge that only a physician
could possess. He published a medical work which he refers to
once as [Greek: iatrika hupomnemata],[3] and again as [Greek:
empeirika hupomnemata][4] These passages probably refer to the
same work,[5] which, unfortunately for the solution of the
difficult question that we have in hand, is lost, and nothing is
known of its contents.
In apparent contradiction to his statement in _Hypotyposes_ I.,
that Scepticism and Empiricism are opposed to each other, in
that Empiricism denies the possibility of knowledge, and
Scepticism makes no dogmatic statements of any kind, Sextus
classes the Sceptics and Empiricists together in another
instance, as regarding knowledge as impossible[6] [Greek: all oi
men phasin auta me katalambanesthai, hoster hoi apo tes
empeirias iatroi kai hoi apo tes skepseos phiolosophoi].
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