Sextus Empiricus: General Principles 317
at the establishment of his point by using the argument which demon-
strates that there is is no demonstration as a kind of step-stool, thereupon
to destroy this argument itself.
Sextus PH 2.204 [III-30]
Ch. xv On Induction
I also think that it is easy to dispense with the method of induction.
For since what they [the dogmatists] want is to establish the universal
on the basis of particulars by means of induction, either they do so by
surveying all of the particulars or by surveying only some of them. But
if they do so by surveying only some of them, then the induction is
insecure, since it is possible that some of the remaining particulars covered
by the induction contradict the universal. But if they do so by surveying
all of the particulars, then they are undertaking impossible labours, since
the particulars are unlimited in number and indefinite. Consequently,
on both of these assumptions I think that it turns out that induction is
undermined [as a mode of reasoning].
Sextus PH 2.1-12
Ch. i Can the Sceptic Investigate the Claims of the
Dogmatists?
[III-31]- Since we have embarked on a [critical] investigation of the dogma-
tists, let us examine, summarily and in outline, each of the parts of what
they call philosophy. First, we shall respond to their incessant claim that
the sceptic is unable to investigate or form any sort of conception of
their dogmatic views. 2. For they say that either the sceptic grasps or
does not grasp what the dogmatists say; and if he grasps it, how could
he be in doubt about what he says he has grasped? And if he does not
grasp it, he will, as a result, not even be able to talk about what he has
not grasped. 3. For just as someone who does not know, for example,
what the [argument] which turns on [progressive] reduction is or what
the theorem via two mode [arguments] is cannot even say anything about
them, so he who does not know about each of the claims made by the
dogmatists cannot investigate them [critically] on matters he does not
know about. For the sceptic is completely unable to investigate the claims
made by the dogmatists. - Those who say this ought to answer and tell us in what sense they
are using the term 'grasp', whether in the sense of simply conceiving
without being committed to the existence of the things we are arguing
about, or in the sense of also positing the existence of the things we are