Sextus Empiricus: Ethics 397
who think that he is enmeshed in inactivity or inconsistency. 163. [They
think that he will be enmeshed] in inactivity because, since all of life
consists in choice and avoidance, he who neither chooses anything nor
avoids anything implicitly denies life and would be suspending judgement
in the manner of some plant; 164. and in inconsistency because, if he is
ever in a tyrant's power and is compelled to do something unspeakable,
either he will not submit to the command but will rather choose voluntary
death, or he will avoid the torture chamber by doing what he is ordered
to do. And so he will no longer be, in Timon's words, "free of choice
and avoidance", but will choose some things and steer clear of others-
and that is the act of people who grasp with conviction that there is
something which is worth choosing and something worth avoiding.
- In saying this they do not understand that the sceptic does not
live in accordance with a philosophical theory (for he is indeed inactive
as far as concerns that) and that he is able to choose some things and
avoid others in accordance with unphilosophical observations. 166. And
if he is compelled to do something forbidden, he will perhaps choose
one thing and avoid another by [following] the basic grasp which accords
with his ancestral customs and habits. And he will bear hardship more
easily than the man who bases [his life] on dogmas, since unlike that
fellow he has no additional opinions beyond [the hardship itself].