Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticism — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticism
John Stuart Mill · en
because he availed himself of the dialectic of Diodorus, but was 235
wholly a Platonist. Now Philo and his followers say that as
far as the Stoic criterion is concerned, that is to say the
[Greek: phantasia kataleptike], things are incomprehensible, but
as far as the nature of things is concerned, they are
comprehensible. Antiochus, however, transferred the Stoa to the
Academy, so that it was even said of him that he taught the
Stoic philosophy in the Academy, because he tried to show that
the Stoic doctrines are found in Plato. The difference,
therefore, between the Sceptical School and the Fourth and Fifth
Academy is evident.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
_Is Empiricism in Medicine the same as Scepticism?_
Some say that the medical sect called Empiricism is the same 236
as Scepticism. Yet the fact must be recognised, that even if
Empiricism does maintain the impossibility of knowledge, it is
neither Scepticism itself, nor would it suit the Sceptic to take
that sect upon himself. He could rather, it seems to me, belong
to the so-called Methodic School. For this alone, of all the
medical sects, does not seem to proceed rashly in regard to 237
unknown things, and does not presume to say whether they are
comprehensible or not, but is guided by phenomena, and receives
from them the same help which they seem to give to the Sceptical
system. For we have said in what has gone before, that the
every-day life which the Sceptic lives is of four parts,
depending on the guidance of nature, on the necessity of the
feelings, on the traditions of laws and customs, and on the
teaching of the arts. Now as by necessity of the feelings 238
the Sceptic is led by thirst to drink, and by hunger to food,
and to supply similar needs in the same way, so also the
physician of the Methodic School is led by the feelings to find
suitable remedies; in constipation he produces a relaxation, as
one takes refuge in the sun from the shrinking on account of
intense cold; he is led by a flux to the stopping of it, as
those in a hot bath who are dripping from a profuse perspiration
and are relaxed, hasten to check it by going into the cold air.
Moreover, it is evident that the Methodic physician forces those
things which are of a foreign nature to adapt themselves to
their own nature, as even the dog tries to get a sharp stick out
that is thrust into him. In order, however, that I should 239
not overstep the outline character of this work by discussing
details, I think that all the things that the Methodics have
thus said can be classified as referring to the necessity of the
feelings that are natural or those that are unnatural. Besides
this, it is common to both schools to have no dogmas, and to use
words loosely. For as the Sceptic uses the formula "I 240
determine nothing," and "I understand nothing," as we said
above, so the Methodic also uses the expressions "Community,"
and "To go through," and other similar ones without over much