Quotation
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“The Sceptic's aim is tranquillity in matters of opinion and moderation of feeling in matters forced upon us.”
Sextus Empiricus · Pyrrhonism · Ancient · c. 200 CE
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading splits the aim in two: on questions of opinion, stop the disturbance that comes from dogmatic assent; on what is forced, hunger or pain, do not pretend you feel nothing, but do not add the judgement that this is unbearable or evil by nature. A competing reading takes the line as therapy that denies suffering, which the second clause refuses. It sits in the chapter on the aim, after he has said investigators became tranquil almost by accident. Moderation, metriopatheia, is the realistic half.
Did Sextus Empiricus really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Annas and Barnes. The Greek telos is the aim. He does not promise freedom from hunger, pain, or cold, only a moderation of the feeling when those are forced.
Where it comes from
Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1.25, in the Annas and Barnes translation
Approximate date: c. 200 CE.
How to use it
A cancelled train at York is forced. Adding 'this always happens to me and the railway is a moral outrage aimed at my evening' is the opinion he would thin out. You can still be cold, still complain to the company, and still miss the dinner. The sentence is about the extra layer of verdict, not about standing in the rain and calling it fine.
A mindset reading
Sort a disturbance before you try to treat it. If it is a belief you could suspend, the aim is quiet. If it is a sensation you cannot vote off, the aim is not to recruit it into a theory of how the universe has it in for you. The split stops both panic and the performance of being unbothered.
Understand the philosophy
Sextus answers the charge that a sceptic cannot act or must be numb. The key terms are ataraxia for opinions and moderation for the necessary feelings. He is close to the Pyrrhonian story in which the search for truth dropped the searcher into quiet when the search balanced out. The aim is reported from practice. It is not a dogma that tranquillity is the nature of things.
- happiness
- mind
- knowledge
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading splits the aim in two: on questions of opinion, stop the disturbance that comes from dogmatic assent; on what is forced, hunger or pain, do not pretend you feel nothing, but do not add the judgement that this is unbearable or evil by nature. A competing reading takes the line as therapy that denies suffering, which the second clause refuses. It sits in the chapter on the aim, after he has said investigators became tranquil almost by accident. Moderation, metriopatheia, is the realistic half.
Did Sextus Empiricus really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Annas and Barnes. The Greek telos is the aim. He does not promise freedom from hunger, pain, or cold, only a moderation of the feeling when those are forced.
Which work is it in?
Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1.25, in the Annas and Barnes translation Approximate date: c. 200 CE.