Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes, Robert Gregg Bury (Translator), 2.17.213

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[213] Inasmuch as some of the Dogmatists¹ affirm that ‟Dialectic” is ‟a science dealing with syllogism, induction, definition and division,” and, after our arguments concerning the criterion and the sign and proof, we have already discussed syllogisms and induction as well as definitions, we deem that it will not be amiss to treat shortly of ‟division” also. Division then, as they allege, is effected in four ways: either a name, or word, is divided into its significations, or a whole into parts, or a genus into species, or a species into particulars. But it is probably easy to show that, on the contrary, in respect of none of these does a divisive science 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.) — 2.17.213 focus

[213] ‘Επεὶ δέ τινες τῶν δογματικῶν τὴν διαλεκτικὴν εἶναί φασιν ἐπιστήμην συλλογιστικὴν ἐπαγωγικὴν ὁριστικὴν <διαιρετικήν>, διελέχθημεν δὲ ἡμεῖς ἤδη, τοὺς περὶ τοῦ κριτηρίου καὶ τοῦ σημείου καὶ τῆς ἀποδείξεως
λόγους, περί τε συλλογισμῶν καὶ ἐπαγωγῆς καὶ περὶ ὅρων, οὐκ ἄτοπον ἡγούμεθα εἶναι καὶ περὶ διαιρέσεως βραχέα διαλαβεῖν.
γίνεσθαι τοίνυν τὴν διαίρεσίν φασι τετραχῶς· ἢ γὰρ ὄνομα εἰς σημαινόμενα διαιρεῖσθαι ἢ ὅλον εἰς μέρη ἢ γένος εἰς εἴδη ἢ εἶδος εἰς τὰ καθ’ ἓκαστον. ὅτι δὲ οὐδενὸς τούτων ἔστιν ἐπιστήμη διαιρετική,
ῥᾴδιον ἴσως ἐπελθεῖν. ¹

Notes on the current edition

Outlines of Pyrrhonism

1. The definition of ‟Dialectic,” and also the four kinds of ‟Division,” here mentioned are given by Alcinous, a second-century (a.d.) Eclectic. As used by Plato and Aristotle, ‟Division” includes only the 3rd and 4th kinds (i.e. ‟logical” as distinguished from grammatical (§ 214) and arithmetical (§§ 215–218) division). Logical ‟division” is the process of defining a class-name by splitting it up into its component parts—the ‟genus” into ‟species,” the ‟species” into particulars. By it we enumerate the classes of objects denoted by the name or term which is ‟divided.”

Sextus Empiricus Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes 2.17.213

Robert Gregg Bury (Translator)

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