Sextus Empiricus: General Principles 305
when he feels hot or cold he would not say, "I seem not to be hot, or
not to be cold." When we say that the sceptic does not dogmatize we
are using the term "dogma" in the sense according to which, as some
say, dogma is the assent to something non-evident investigated by the
sciences, for a Pyrrhonist never assents to anything non-evident. 14.
Further, he does not dogmatize even when, in regard to non-evident
[propositions], he offers the sceptical utterances "no more this than that"
and "I determine nothing" or any of the others concerning which we
will later speak. For the one who dogmatizes posits as being the case
that about which he is said to dogmatize, whereas the sceptic does not
posit these utterances as unconditionally [representing] that which is the
case. For he supposes that just as the utterance "all is false" expresses
its own falsity as well as that of other propositions, (and similarly for
the phrase "nothing is true"), so the phrase "no more this than that" is
itself one of the things about which it is said "no more this than that"
and for this reason cancels itself along with the other things to which it
is applied. We say the same thing for the other sceptical utterances. 15.
Besides, whereas the one who dogmatizes posits as being the case that
about which he dogmatizes, the sceptic offers his utterances as implicitly
self-cancelling, and so he should not be said to dogmatize in offering
them. The most important point of all is that in making these utterances
he expresses that which appears to himself and he reports the state he
is in, but he does so undogmatically, and he commits himself to nothing
about any underlying external things.
Ch. viii Has the Sceptic a System?
- We take a similar approach when asked "has the sceptic a system?"
If by "system" one means "commitment to many dogmas having logical
connections with each other and with appearances" and by "dogma" one
means "assent to something non-evident", we will say that the sceptic
has no system. 17. But if by "system" one means "a method which
follows a rational procedure based on appearances, that rational procedure
indicating that it is possible to seem to live rightly" (for "rightly" is
interpreted not only as "living according to virtue" but also in a simpler
sense), and encompassing the ability to suspend judgement, we will then
say that sceptic has a system. For we follow a rational procedure based
on appearances, this procedure indicating a life in accord with traditional
customs and laws and practices and private states.
Ch. ix Does the Sceptic Have a Physical Doctrine? - We say something similar in investigating whether the sceptic
should have a physical doctrine. As far as pronouncing with firm confi-