We cannot prove
that the phenomena represent objects, or find out what the
relation of phenomena to objects is. There is no criterion to
tell us which one is true of all the different representations
of the same object, and of all the varieties of sensation that
arise through the many phases of relativity of the conditions
which control the character of the phenomena.
Every effort to find the truth can deal only with phenomena, and
absolute reality can never be known.
[1] _Adv. Math._ VII. 55; _Hyp._ II. 32.
[2] _Adv. Math._ XI. 140.
[3] Diog. IX. 11, 61.
CHAPTER III.
_The Sceptical Tropes_.
The exposition of the Tropes of Pyrrhonism constitutes
historically and philosophically the most important part of the
writings of Sextus Empiricus. These Tropes represent the sum
total of the wisdom of the older Sceptical School, and were held
in high respect for centuries, not only by the Pyrrhoneans, but
also by many outside the narrow limits of that School. In the
first book of the _Hypotyposes_ Sextus gives two classes of
Tropes, those of [Greek: epoche] and the eight Tropes of
Aenesidemus against Aetiology.
The Tropes of [Greek: epoche] are arranged in groups of ten,
five and two, according to the period of the Sceptical School to
which they belong; the first of these groups is historically the
most important, or the Ten Tropes of [Greek: epoche], as these
are far more closely connected with the general development of
Scepticism, than the later ones.
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