The
seventh states that they often give reasons for things that 184
not only conflict with phenomena, but also with their own
hypotheses. The eighth states that although that which seems
manifest, and that which is to be investigated, are often
equally inscrutable, they build up a theory from the one about
the other, although both are equally inscrutable. It is not
impossible, Aenesidemus said also, that some Dogmatics 185
should fail in their theories of causality from other
combinations of reasons deducible from the Tropes given above.
Perhaps also the five Tropes of [Greek: epoche] are sufficient
to refute aetiology, for he who proposes a cause will propose
one which is either in harmony with all the sects of philosophy,
with Scepticism, and with phenomena, or one that is not.
Perhaps, however, it is not possible that a cause should be in
harmony with them, for phenomena and unknown things altogether
disagree with each other. If it is not in harmony with them, the
reason of this will also be demanded of the one who proposed 186
it; and if he accepts a phenomenon as the cause of a phenomenon,
or something unknown as the cause of the unknown, he will be
thrown into the _regressus in infinitum_; if he uses one cause
to account for another one, into the _circulus in probando_; but
if he stops anywhere, he will either say that the cause that he
proposes holds good so far as regards the things that have been
said, and introduce relation, abolishing an absolute standpoint;
or if he accepts anything by hypothesis, he will be attacked by
us.
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