Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticism   By: Mary Mills Patrick (1850-1940)

A Thesis accepted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Bern Switzerland, November 1897

by

MARY MILLS PATRICK

PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE, CONSTANTINOPLE TURKEY

This Thesis is accompanied by a Translation from the Greek of the First Book of the "Pyrrhonic Sketches " by Sextus Empiricus

CAMBRIDGE

DEIGHTON BELL & CO.

LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS

1899

CAMBRIDGE

PRINTED BY JONATHAN PALMER

ALEXANDRA STREET

PREFACE

The following treatise on Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticism has been prepared to supply a need much felt in the English language by students of Greek philosophy. For while other schools of Greek philosophy have been exhaustively and critically discussed by English scholars, there are few sources of information available to the student who wishes to make himself familiar with the teachings of Pyrrhonism. The aim has been, accordingly, to give a concise presentation of Pyrrhonism in relation to its historical development and the Scepticism of the Academy, with critical references to the French and German works existing on the subject. The time and manner of the connection of Sextus Empiricus with the Pyrrhonean School has also been discussed.

As the First Book of the Hypotyposes , or Pyrrhonic Sketches by Sextus Empiricus, contains the substance of the teachings of Pyrrhonism, it has been hoped that a translation of it into English might prove a useful contribution to the literature on Pyrrhonism, and this translation has been added to the critical part of the work.

In making this translation, and in the general study of the works 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 existing manuscripts of the works of Sextus. The divisions into chapters, with the headings of the chapters in the translation, is the same as Fabricius gives from the manuscripts, although not used by Bekker, and the numbers of the paragraphs are the same as those given by both Fabricius and Bekker. References to Diogenes Laertius and 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 Scepticism Aenésidème Pascal Kant , Paris, 1867.

Chaignet, Histoire de la Psychologie des Grecs , Paris, 1887 90.

Haas, Leben des Sextus Empiricus , Burghausen, 1882.

Natorp, Forschungen zur Geschichte des Erkenntnisproblems bei den Alten , Berlin, 1884.

Hirzel, Untersuchungen zu Cicero's philosophischen Schriften , Leipzig, 1877 83.

Pappenheim, Erläuterung zu des Sextus Empiricus Pyrrhoneischen Grundzügen , Heidelberg, 1882.

Pappenheim, Die Tropen der Greichischen Skeptiker , Berlin, 1885.

Pappenheim, Lebensverhältnisse des Sextus Empiricus , Berlin, 1887.

Pappenheim, Der angebliche Heraclitismus des Skeptikers Ainesidemos , Berlin, 1887.

Pappenheim, Der Sitz der Schule der Griechischen Skeptiker, Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie , I. 1, S. 47, 1887.

Maccoll, The Greek Sceptics from Pyrrho to Sextus , London, 1869.