Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes, Robert Gregg Bury (Translator), 2.22.253

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[253] So whenever such an argument is propounded to us we shall suspend judgement regarding each premiss, and when finally the whole argument is propounded we shall draw what conclusions we approve.

And if the Dogmatists of the School of Chrysippus declare that when the ‟Sorites”¹ is being propounded they ought to halt while the argument is still proceeding and suspend judgement, to avoid falling into absurdity, much more, surely, would it be fitting for us, who are Sceptics, when we suspect absurdity, to give no hasty approval of the premisses propounded but rather to suspend judgement about each until the completion of the whole series which forms the argument.

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.) — 2.22.253 focus

[253] ὅταν οὖν οὕτως ἡμῖν συνερωτᾶται λόγος, καθ’ ἑκάστην πρότασιν ἐφέξομεν, εἶτα τοῦ ὅλου συνερωτηθέντος λόγου τὰ <ἡμῖν> δοκοῦντα ἐπάξομεν. καὶ εἴγε οἱ περὶ τὸν Χρύσιππον δογματικοὶ (fr. II 275 A.) ἐν τῇ συνερωτήσει τοῦ
σμρίτου προἰόντος τοῦ λόγου φασὶ δεῖν ἴστ’ ἳστασθαι καὶ ἐπέχειν, ἴνα μὴ ἐκπέσωσιν εἰς ἀτοπίαν, πολὺ δήπου μᾶλλον ἂν ἡμῖν ἁρμόζον εἴη σκεπτικοῖς οὖσιν, ὑποπτεύουσιν ἀτοπίαν, μὴ προπίπτειν κατὰ τὰς συνερωτήσεις τῶν λημμάτων, ἀλλ’ ἐπέχειν καθ’ ἕκαστον ἕως τῆς ὃλης ¹ συνερωτήσεως τοῦ λόγου.

Notes on the current edition

Outlines of Pyrrhonism

1. The fallacy of the ‟Heap” (acervalis), so-called because commonly framed thus: ‟This is a heap of grain: take away one grain—two grains—three grains, and so on—is it still a heap?” Or ‟Does one grain make a heap? Or, if not, 2,3, . . . x grains?” The essence of the fallacy is that ‟aliquid minutatim et gradatim additur aut demitur” (Cicero, Lucull. 16). In modern Logic ‟Sorites” denotes a chain of syllogisms in which all the conclusions save the last are suppressed.

Sextus Empiricus Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes 2.22.253

Robert Gregg Bury (Translator)

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