[2] The
reference above to some who say that only the things of sense
are true, is to Epicurus and Protagoras; to some that only the
things of thought are true, to Democritus and Plato; and to
those that claimed some of both to be true, to the Stoics and
the Peripatetics.[3] The three new Tropes added by Agrippa have
nothing to do with sense-perception, but bear entirely upon the
possibility of reasoning, as demanded by the science of logic,
in contrast to the earlier ones which related almost entirely,
with the exception of the tenth, to material objects. Sextus
claims that these five Tropes also lead to the suspension of
judgment,[4] but their logical result is rather the dogmatic
denial of all possibility of knowledge, showing as Hirzel has
well demonstrated, far more the influence of the New Academy
than the spirit of the Sceptical School.[5] It was the
standpoint of the older Sceptics, that although the search for
the truth had not yet succeeded, yet they were still seekers,
and Sextus claims to be faithful to this old aim of the
Pyrrhonists. He calls himself a seeker,[6] and in reproaching
the New Academy for affirming that knowledge is impossible,
Sextus says, "Moreover, we say that our ideas are equal as
regards trustworthiness and untrustworthiness."[7] The ten
Tropes claim to establish doubt only in regard to a knowledge of
the truth, but the five Tropes of Agrippa aim to logically prove
the impossibility of knowledge. It is very strange that Sextus
does not see this decided contrast in the attitude of the two
sets of Tropes, and expresses his approval of those of Agrippa,
and makes more frequent use of the fifth of these, [Greek: ho
diallelos], in his subsequent reasoning than of any other
argument.
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