Quotation
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“Scepticism is an ability to set out oppositions among things which appear and are thought of in any way at all, an ability by which, because of the equipollence in the opposed objects and accounts, we come first to suspension of judgement and afterwards to tranquillity.”
Sextus Empiricus · Pyrrhonism · Ancient · c. 200 CE
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes scepticism as a practised ability: line up appearances and arguments until they balance, suspend judgement, and find tranquillity on the far side of that suspension. A competing reading hears nihilism, the claim that nothing is real, which this sentence does not make. It is the definition that opens the Outlines, before the modes and the arguments against other schools. Equipollence, equal weight, is the mechanism. Tranquillity is the result he reports, not a prize promised in advance.
Did Sextus Empiricus really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Julia Annas and Jonathan Barnes, Outlines of Scepticism. Equipollence means equal force. The sentence defines a skill, not a doctrine that nothing is true.
Where it comes from
Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1.8, in the Annas and Barnes translation
Approximate date: c. 200 CE.
How to use it
Two contradictory school reports arrive about the same child in Cardiff, each confident. The ability is to set them out until you can feel the equal pull, and not to decorate one of them because you are tired. Suspension here is a pause in assent, not a refusal to collect the child. You still walk to the gate. You stop insisting you already know which teacher is the villain.
A mindset reading
The habit is to notice when you have stopped looking for the opposing account because one side feels finished. Equal force is a finding, not a mood of shrugging. If after the search one side really is stronger, this definition does not order you to fake a tie. It orders the search that would show the tie if it is there.
Understand the philosophy
Sextus is distinguishing Pyrrhonism from the Academics and from people who deny the world. The key terms are dynamis, an ability, isostheneia, equal strength, and epochē, suspension. Tranquillity, ataraxia, is what he says followed for the investigators who had hoped that finding the truth would calm them. The Outlines teach the ability. They are not a list of beliefs the sceptic holds.
- knowledge
- mind
FAQ
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes scepticism as a practised ability: line up appearances and arguments until they balance, suspend judgement, and find tranquillity on the far side of that suspension. A competing reading hears nihilism, the claim that nothing is real, which this sentence does not make. It is the definition that opens the Outlines, before the modes and the arguments against other schools. Equipollence, equal weight, is the mechanism. Tranquillity is the result he reports, not a prize promised in advance.
Did Sextus Empiricus really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Julia Annas and Jonathan Barnes, Outlines of Scepticism. Equipollence means equal force. The sentence defines a skill, not a doctrine that nothing is true.
Which work is it in?
Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1.8, in the Annas and Barnes translation Approximate date: c. 200 CE.