Sextus Empiricus: Physics 375
be no rain, if there were no cause of the storminess in the south and the
dryness in the east. 19. Furthermore, he who says that there is no cause
is himself overturned; for if he says that he says this simply and without
any cause, he will not be believed, but if he says that he says it because
of some cause, then by wanting to abolish the cause he posits ,
by giving a cause for there being no cause.
The existence of cause is plausible, then, for these reasons. 20. That
it is also plausible to say that there is no cause of anything will be clear
when we have set forth for the present a few of the many arguments
used in support of this. For example, it is impossible to conceive of a
cause before grasping the effect as its effect; for we only understand that
one thing is the cause of the effect whenever we grasp the other as the
effect. 21. But we are unable to grasp the effect of the cause as its effect
if we do not grasp the cause of the effect as its cause; for we think we
understand that something is an effect whenever we grasp the cause of
it as its cause. 22. If, therefore, in order that we may conceive the
cause, we have to have previously understood the effect, and in order to
understand the effect, as I said, we have to have previously known the
cause, the circular mode for producing doubt reveals both [cause and
effect] as inconceivable, it being impossible either to conceive of the cause
as cause or of the effect as effect. For since each needs confirmation from
the other, we will not have a starting point for the conception. Therefore,
we will not be able to assert that anything is the cause of anything.
- In case someone were to admit that the cause is able to be conceived,
it would be believed to be ungraspable because of disagreement. For
whoever says that something is the cause of something else, either says
that he says this simply, being motivated by no reasonable cause, or he
will say that he is led to this assent because of some cause. If he says
this simply, he will be no more believable than will one who says simply
that there is no cause of anything. If he says that there are causes owing
to which he believes that something is the cause of something else, he
will be attempting to establish what is under investigation with the
help of what is under investigation. For when we investigate whether
something is the cause of something, he says that the cause exists, since
there is a cause of the cause's existence. 24. Further, since we are investi-
gating the existence of the cause, he will certainly have to provide the
cause of the cause of the existence of some cause, and so on, infinitely.
But it is impossible to provide infinite causes. Therefore, it is impossible
to pronounce definitely that something is the cause of something else. - Further, the cause either already is and exists as a cause when it
produces the effect, or it is not a cause. Surely, the latter is not the case.
If the former is the case, it must have first existed and previously have