Sextus Empiricus Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes 3.18.121

Robert Gregg Bury (Translator)

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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.) — 3.18.121 focus

Notes on the current edition

Outlines of Pyrrhonism

1. Hesiod, Theog. 118.
2. ‟Chaos” is here absurdly derived from χώρα, ‟room” (the Stoics connected it with χεῖν, ‟to pour”). It means, in fact, a ‟cavity” or abyss (from χάσκειν, ‟to yawn”).
3. ‟By which” is the ‟efficient,” ‟from which” the ‟material” cause: the Stoics regarded both these as ‟bodies,” and so involving the existence of space.
4. For the Stoic use of ‟first” and ‟second” in hypothetical syllogisms cf. ii. 104, 142. In the next sections (122–123) the arguments of the previous sections (120–121) are rebutted: (1) the ‟parts of space” are identical with space and in asserting their existence we are merely ‟begging the question”: (2) the reality of ‟body,” or solid matter, as well as of the ‟efficient” and ‟material” causes, is likewise pure assumption. In §§ 124–130 the special views of the Stoics are expounded and refuted; in §§ 13 1ff. those of Aristotle and his School.