Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes, Robert Gregg Bury (Translator), 3.29.260

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[260] The only thing left is to say that the expert teaches the non-expert; and this, too, is a thing impossible. For it is declared to be wholly impossible that an expert artist should exist, since neither do we see anyone existing spontaneously and from birth as an expert, nor does anyone turn into an expert from being a non-expert. For either one lesson and one apprehension can make an expert of the non-expert or they cannot do so at all.¹

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.) — 3.29.260 focus

[260] γελοῖον γάρ. λείπεται λέγειν ὅτι ὁ τεχνίτης τὸν ἄτεχνον·
ὃ καὶ αὐτὸ τῶν ἀδυνάτων ἐστίν. ὅλως γὰρ ὑποστῆναι τεχνίτην ἀδύνατον εἶναι λέγεται, ἐπεὶ μήτε αὐτοφυῶς τις καὶ ἅμα τῷ γενέσθαι τεχνίτης ὑφιστάμενος βλέπεται μήτε ἐξ ἀτέχνου γίνεταί τις τεχνίτης. ἤτοι γὰρ ‘ὲν θεώρημα καὶ μία κατάληψις δύναται ποιῆσαι τὸν ἄτεχνον τεχνίτην
ἢ οὐδαμῶς.

Notes on the current edition

Outlines of Pyrrhonism

1. The argument here is that the non-expert cannot become an expert either (1) by a single lesson, §§ 261–262, or (2) by a course of lessons, which must follow each other singly, § 263. ‟Apprehension” here means the grasp of a truth or principle of the art or craft which is being imparted, the ‟art” itself being defined as a ‟system” of such pieces of knowledge.

Sextus Empiricus Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes 3.29.260

Robert Gregg Bury (Translator)

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