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Patrick, Mary Mills, 1850-1940

"Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticism"

Leaving aside, however, outer mixtures, our eyes 126
have inside of them coatings and humors. Since then visible
things are not seen without these, they will not be accurately
comprehended, for it is the mixture that we perceive, and for
this reason those who have the jaundice see everything yellow,
and those with bloodshot eyes bloody. Since the same sound
appears different in broad open places from what it does in
narrow and winding ones, and different in pure air and in
impure, it is probable that we do not perceive the tones
unmixed; for the ears have narrow winding passages filled with
vaporous secretions, which it is said gather from places around
the head. Since also there are substances present in the 127
nostrils and in the seat of the sense of taste, we perceive the
things smelled and the things tasted in connection with them,
and not unmixed. So that because of mixture the senses do not
perceive accurately what the external objects are. The intellect 128
even does not do this, chiefly because its guides, the
senses, make mistakes, and perhaps it itself adds a certain
special mixture to those messages communicated by the senses;
for in each place where the Dogmatics think that the ruling
faculty is situated, we see that certain humors are present,
whether one would locate it in the region of the brain, in the
region of the heart, or somewhere else. Since therefore
according to this Trope also, we see that we cannot say anything
regarding the nature of external objects, we are obliged to
suspend our judgment.


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