The latter are not a reduction of the Tropes of Aenesidemus,
but are written from an entirely different standpoint. The ten
Tropes are empirical, and aim to furnish objective proofs of the
foundation theories of Pyrrhonism, while the five are rather
rules of thought leading to logical proof, and are dialectic in
their character. We find this distinction illustrated by the
different way in which the Trope of relativity is treated in the
two groups. In the first it points to an objective relativity,
but with Agrippa to a general subjective logical principle. The
originality of the Tropes of Agrippa does not lie in their
substance matter, but in their formulation and use in the
Sceptical School. These methods of proof were, of course, not
new, but were well known to Aristotle, and were used by the
Sceptical Academy, and probably also by Timon,[5] while the
[Greek: pros ti] goes back at least to Protagoras. The five
Tropes are as follows.
(i) The one based upon discord.
(ii) The _regressus in infinitum_.
(iii) Relation.
(iv) The hypothetical.
(v) The _circulus in probando_.
Two of these are taken from the old list, the first and the
third, and Sextus says that the five Tropes are intended to
supplement the ten Tropes, and to show the audacity of the
Dogmatics in a variety of ways.[6] The order of these Tropes is
the same with Diogenes as with Sextus, but the definitions of
them differ sufficiently to show that the two authors took their
material from different sources.
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