Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes, Robert Gregg Bury (Translator), 3.19.136

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[136] Our attitude is the same with respect to the inquiry about time. For if we depend on appearances, time seems to be something, but if we depend on the arguments about it, it appears unreal. Some¹ define time as ‟the interval of the motion of the Whole” (meaning by ‟Whole” the Universe), others² as ‟the actual motion of the Universe;” Aristotle (or, as some say, Plato) as ‟the number of the prior and posterior in motion;”

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.) — 3.19.136 focus

[136] Τὸ δὲ αὐτὸ πάσχομεν καὶ ἐν τῇ περὶ τοῦ χρόνου ζητήσει· ὅσον μὲν γὰρ ἐπὶ τοῖς φαινομένοις δοκεῖ τι εἶναι ὁ χρόνος, ὅσον δὲ ἐπὶ τοῖς περὶ αὐτοῦ λεγομένοις
μένοις ἀνυπόστατος φαίνεται. χρόνον γὰρ εἶναί φασιν οἱ μὲν διάστημα τῆς τοῦ ὅλου κινήσεως ὅλον δὲ λέγω τὸν κόσμον), οἱ δὲ αὐτὴν τὴν κίνησιν τοῦ κόσμου, Ἀριστοτέλης δέ, ἤ ὥς τινες Πλάτων’, ¹ ἀριθμὸν τοῦ ἐν κινήσει προτέρου καὶ ὑστέρου,
Στράτων δέ, ἤ ὥς τινες Ἀριστοτέλης,

Notes on the current edition

Outlines of Pyrrhonism

1. The Stoics, cf. Diog. Laert. vii. 141. This definition is derived from the fact that Time is measured by the motions of the planets and stars which compose the Universe.

2. Aristot. Phys. iv. 10 mentions this (Platonic) definition, cf. Plato, Tim. 47 d ff. Aristotle says that our notion of time is derived from a sense of difference and of succession in our thoughts and perceptions, which brings with it a distinction between ‟before” and ‟after”—between ‟past,” ‟present,” and ‟future.” Thus ‟time” is a thing ‟numbered” or ‟measured” by the conscious mind, and Aristotle defines it as ‟a numeration of motion in respect of priority and posteriority” (Phys. iv. 11).

Sextus Empiricus Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes 3.19.136

Robert Gregg Bury (Translator)

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