The following treatise on Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticismhas been prepared to supply a need much felt in the Englishlanguage by students of Greek philosophy. For while other schoolsof Greek philosophy have been exhaustively and critically discussedby English scholars, there are few sources of information availableto the student who wishes to make himself familiar with theteachings of Pyrrhonism. The aim has been, accordingly, to give aconcise presentation of Pyrrhonism in relation to its historicaldevelopment and the Scepticism of the Academy, with criticalreferences to the French and German works existing on the subject.The time and manner of the connection of Sextus Empiricus with thePyrrhonean School has also been discussed.
As the First Book of the Hypotyposes, or PyrrhonicSketches by Sextus Empiricus, contains the substance of theteachings of Pyrrhonism, it has been hoped that a translation of itinto English might prove a useful contribution to the literature onPyrrhonism, and this translation has been added to the criticalpart of the work.
In making this translation, and in the general study of theworks of Sextus, the Greek text of Immanuel Bekker, Berlin, 1842,has been used, with frequent consultation of the text of J.A.Fabricius, 1718, which was taken directly from the existingmanuscripts of the works of Sextus. The divisions into chapters,with the headings of the chapters in the translation, is the sameas Fabricius gives from the manuscripts, although not used byBekker, and the numbers of the paragraphs are the same as thosegiven by both Fabricius and Bekker. References to Diogenes Laertiusand other ancient works have been carefully verified.
The principal modern authors consulted are the following:
Ritter, Geschichte der Philosophie, II. Auf.,Hamburg, 1836—38.
Zeller, Philosophie der Griechen, III. Auf.,Leipzig, 1879—89.
Lewes, History of Philosophy, Vol. I.,London, 1866.
Ueberweg, History of Philosophy, IV. ed.,translated by Morris, 1871.
Brochard, Les Sceptiques Grecs, Paris,1877.
Brochard, Pyrrhon et le Scepticism Primitive,No. 5, Ribot's Revue Phil., Paris, 1885.
Saisset, Le ScepticismAenésidème-Pascal-Kant, Paris, 1867.
Chaignet, Histoire de la Psychologie desGrecs, Paris, 1887-90.
Haas, Leben des Sextus Empiricus, Burghausen,1882.
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