Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes, Robert Gregg Bury (Translator), 2.13.184

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[184] If, then, neither by proof nor by sign nor by criterion it is possible to show that proof exists, and it is not evident of itself either, as we have shown,¹ then it will be non-apprehensible whether proof exists. Consequently, proof will also be unreal; for it is conceived together with the act of proving, and were it not apprehended it would be unable to prove.² Wherefore proof will not exist.

Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes. Sextus Empiricus. Robert Gregg Bury (Translator). London. 1933.

Funding provided by Tisch Library, Tufts University.

Current edition First1KGreek

Outlines of Pyrrhonism (English) (Sextus Empiricus, Vol. 1. Bury, Robert Gregg, translator. London: William Heinemann Ltd.; New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1933.)

Editions (1)

Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes First1KGreek (Sextus Empiricus. Sexti Empiricii Opera, Volume 1. Mutschmann, Hermann, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1912.) — 2.13.184 focus

[184] εἰ οὖν μήτε δι’ ἀποδείξεως μήτε διὰ σημείου μήτε διὰ κριτηρίου ἔστιν ὑπομνῆσαι ὅτι ἔστιν ἀπόδειξις, ἀλλ’ οὐδ’
ἐξ ἑαυτῆς πρόδηλός ἐστιν, ὡς παρεστήσαμεν, ἀκατάληπτον ἔσται εἰ ἐστιν ἀπόδειξις. διὰ δὲ τοῦτο καὶ ἀνύπαρκτος ἔσται ἡ ἀπόδειξις· νενόηται μὲν γὰρ σὺν τῷ ἀποδεικνύναι, ἀποδεικνύναι δὲ οὐκ ἂν δύναιτο μὴ καταλαμβανομένη. διόπερ οὐδὲ ἀπόδειξις ἔσται.

Notes on the current edition

Outlines of Pyrrhonism

1. Cf. §§ 144 supra.

2. i.e. if ‟proof” is non-apprehensible it must also be unreal or non-existent, because non-apprehensible ‟proof” is incapable of ‟proving” anything, and ‟proof” apart from ‟proving” is inconceivable—the ‟conception” of the one necessarily implying the other.

Sextus Empiricus Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes 2.13.184

Robert Gregg Bury (Translator)

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