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but some hypothesize one craft, some another, they stand accused of
disagreeing, and are held to account by the argument from disagreement,
which I expounded previously in what I said about the good. 240. But
even if, for the sake of hypothesis, they were to say that the craft of
living is one craft, for example, the notorious craft of "prudence," which
is fantasized about by the Stoics, and seems more impressive than the
rest, still no less absurd consequences follow. For since prudence is a
virtue, and only the wise man has virtue, the Stoics, not being wise men,
will not possess the craft of living. 241. And, in general, since according
to them it is not possible that any craft exists, there will not be a craft
of living, as far as what they say is concerned.
For example, they say that a craft is a complex of grasps and a grasping
is an assent to a graspable presentation. But the graspable presentation
is undiscoverable. For not every presentation is graspable, nor is it possible
to decide which one from among the presentations is graspable, since we
are not able to judge unqualifiedly in the case of every presentation which
one is graspable and which one is not. And if we need a graspable
presentation to decide what the graspable presentation is, we fall into an
infinite regress, since we are asking for another graspable presentation
to use in deciding whether a received presentation is graspable. 242.
And, further, the Stoics are not on sure footing in their proposal of the
conception of a graspable presentation for the following reasons: on the
one hand, they say that the graspable presentation arises from something
that exists; on the other hand, by "existing" they mean that which is
such as to produce a graspable presentation, and so they stumble into
the circular mode for producing an impasse [aporia]. If, then, in order
for a craft of living to exist there must previously exist a craft, and in
order for a craft to exist there must previously exist a grasp, and in order
for a grasp to exist, assent to a graspable presentation must be grasped,
and the graspable presentation is undiscoverable, the craft of living is
undiscoverable.
- Further, this can be said. Every craft seems to be grasped by
means of its peculiar products, but there is no peculiar product of the
craft of living. For whatever product someone would say this is, is found
to be common to ordinary people also [i.e., those without the craft of
living], such as honouring one's parents, paying debts, and all the rest.
Therefore, there is no craft of living. For we shall not recognize, as they
say, what is a product of prudence from what appears to be something
said or done from a prudent disposition by a prudent man. 244. For the
prudent disposition is itself ungraspable, being neither simply apparent
by itself nor by its products, these being common to ordinary people.
And to say that we grasp that one has the craft of living from the