How to Keep an Open Mind by Sextus Empiricus

Author:Sextus Empiricus
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2021-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

Whether Medical Empiricism Is the Same as Skepticism

[236] Some say that the skeptical philosophy is the same as the Empirical school of medicine. But it has to be recognized that if in fact that form of Empiricism makes a strong statement* about the impossibility of grasping unclear things, it’s not the same as skepticism, nor would it make sense for the skeptic to align himself with that school. It’s more the so-called Method, it seems to me, that he could pursue.3 [237] For it alone of the medical schools seems not to be rash about unclear things, with the effrontery to say whether or not they can be grasped, but follows what is apparent and takes from this what seems to be of benefit—which goes along with skeptical practice.

We said earlier4 that common life, which the skeptic also adheres to, has four aspects, one having to do with the guidance of nature, one with the necessity of how we’re affected, one with the handing down of laws and customs, and one with the teaching of skills. [238] Well, just as the skeptic, owing to the necessity of how he’s affected, is led by thirst to drink, by hunger to food, and likewise to other things, so too the Methodic doctor is led by the ways people are affected to the corresponding treatments:5 by constriction to loosening, as when one escapes to heat from the tightness resulting from extreme cold, or by flow to stopping it, as when people in the baths, running with lots of sweat and feeling faint, proceed to stop it and for this reason escape to the cold air. It’s also quite clear that things that are naturally alien compel taking steps to remove them; after all, even the dog, when stuck by a thorn, proceeds to remove it. [239] And—not to go beyond the outline style of this book by speaking of them one by one—I think all the things of this kind said by the Methodists can be placed under the heading “necessity of the ways we’re affected,” some of them natural and others against nature. In addition, the unopinionated and indifferent use of words is common to both approaches.… [241] Hence, on the evidence of these and similar points, I must say that the medical approach of the Methodists has a certain family resemblance to skepticism, more than the other medical schools (and when viewed in comparison with them, not just on its own).

Having gone over this much ground concerning those who are thought to be close to the skeptical approach, at this point we round off the general account of skepticism and the first book of our Outlines.

The remaining two books of Outlines are devoted to what Sextus called the “specific account” (I.6); that is, a critique of dogmatic theories in logic, physics, and ethics. But at the start of book II, as an introduction to this, he addresses an objection from the dogmatists that claims the skeptic cannot even get started on this project.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.