ιζ′ περὶ μονῆς.

[115] Ἑπομένως δὲ καὶ περὶ τῆς ὡς πρὸς τὴν φύσιν μονῆς ἠπόρησάν τινες λέγοντες, ὅτι τὸ κινούμενον οὐ μένει,
πᾶν δὲ σῶμα διαρκῶς κινεῖται κατὰ τἀς τῶν δογματικῶν
ὑπολήψεις, ῥευστὴν εἶναι λεγόντων τὴν οὐσίαν καὶ ἀεὶ διαφορήσεις τε καὶ προσθέσεις ποίου μένην, ὧς τὸν μὲν Πλάτωνα (cf. ’ξ 54) μηδὲ ὄντα λέγειν τὰ σώματα ἀλλὰ γινόμενα μᾶλλον καλεῖν, τὸν δὲ Ἡράκλειτον
ὀξείᾳ ποταμοῦ ῥύσει τὴν εὐκινησίαν τῆς ἡμετέρας ὕλης ἀπε ικάζε ἱν. οὐδὲν ἄρα σῶμα μένε.

[116] γε μὴν λεγόμενον μένειν συνέχεσθαι δοκεῖ ὑπὸ τῶν περὶ αὐτό, τὸ δὲ συνεχό- ¹² 148 μένον πάσχει· οὐδὲν δὲ ἔστι πάσχον, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ αἴτιον, ὧς ὑπεμνήσαμεν· οὐδὲ μένει τι ἄρα. ἐρωτῶσι δέ τινες καὶ τοῦτον τὸν λόγον.. τὸ μένον πάσχει, τὸ δὲ πάσχον κινεῖται·
τὸ ἄρα μένειν λεγόμενον κινεῖται· εἰ δὲ κινεῖται, οὐ μένει.

[117] ἐκ δὲ τούτων φανερόν ἐστιν, ὅτι οὐδὲ τὸ ἀσώματον ἐνδέχεται μένειν. εἰ γὰρ τὸ μένον πάσχει, τὸ δὲ πάσχειν σωμάτων ἐστὶν ἴδιον, εἶπερ ἄρα, καὶ οὐχὶ ἀσωμάτων , οὐδὲν δὲ ἀσώματον οὔτε πάσχειν δύναται οὔτε μένειν, οὐδὲν
ἄρα μένει.

[118] Τοσαῦτα μὲν καὶ περὶ μονῆς εἰρήσθω. ἐπεὶ δὲ εκαστον τῶν προειρημένων οὐκ ἄνευ τόπου ἤ χρόνου ἐπινοεῖται, μετιτέον ἐπὶ τὴν περὶ τούτων σκέψιν· ἐὰν γὰρ ταῦτα δείξῃ τις ἀνυπόστατα, ἀνυπόστατον ἔσται καὶ διὰ
ταῦτα ἐκείνων ἕκαστον. ἀρξώμεθα δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ τόπου.

Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes. Sextus Empiricus. ed. Hermann Mutschmann. Germany. 2014.

Current edition First1KGreek

Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes (Greek) (Sextus Empiricus. Sexti Empiricii Opera, Volume 1. Mutschmann, Hermann, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1912.)

Translations (1)

Outlines of Pyrrhonism First1KGreek (Sextus Empiricus, Vol. 1. Bury, Robert Gregg, translator. London: William Heinemann Ltd.; New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1933.) — 3.17 focus

Chapter XVII.—Concerning Rest

[115] In like manner some have doubted about physical rest,¹ say ing that what is in motion is not at rest, but every body i is constantly in motion according to the views of the Dogmatists who assert that Being is in flux² and always undergoing effluxes and additions— just as Plato does not even speak of bodies as ‟being” but rather calls them ‟becoming,” and Heracleitus compares the mobility of our matter³ to the swift current of a river. Therefore no body is at rest.

[116] What is said to be at rest is, in fact, held to be embraced by the things which surround it, and what is embraced is acted upon; but nothing acted upon exists, since no causal activity exists, as we have shown;⁴ therefore nothing is at rest.

Some, too, propound this argument: What is at rest is acted upon; but what is acted upon is in motion; therefore what is said to be at rest is in motion; but if it is in motion, it is not at rest.

[117] And from this it is evident that neither does the incorporeal admit of being at rest. For if what is at rest is acted upon, and being acted upon is a property, if anything, of bodies and not of incorporeals, no incorporeal can either be acted upon or be at rest; therefore nothing is at rest.

[118] So much for the subject of rest. And since no one of the things we have mentioned is conceived apart from space or time, we must pass on to consider these; for if one should prove these to be unreal, then, because of them, each of the others also will be unreal. Let us begin with space.

Notes on the current edition

Pyrrhoniae hypotyposes

1. § 116 cf. adv. dogm. IV 246.

2. ἀφαιρέσεις in mrg. L (cf. p. 146, 15), quod probat Kayser coll. p. 146,15; at malim ἀποθορήσεις cf. p. 49,19.

Sextus Empiricus Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes 3.17

ed. Hermann Mutschmann

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ιζ′ περὶ μονῆς.

Current edition First1KGreek

Chapter XVII.—Concerning Rest

Notes on the current edition

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