THE SCEPTICS
Scepticism is a semi-technical term in philosophy, and means the
doctrine which doubts or denies the possibility of knowledge. It is
thus destructive of philosophy, since philosophy purports to be a form
of knowledge. Scepticism appears and reappears at intervals in the
history of thought. We have already met with it among the Sophists.
When Gorgias said that, if anything exists, it cannot be known, this
was a direct expression of the sceptical spirit. And the Protagorean
"Man is the measure of all things" amounts to the same thing, for it
implies that man can only know things as they appear to him, and not
as they are in themselves. In modern times the most noted sceptic was
David Hume, who attempted to show that the most fundamental categories
of thought, such as substance and causality, are illusory, and thereby
to undermine the fabric of knowledge. Subjectivism usually ends in
scepticism. For knowledge is the relation of subject and object, and
to lay exclusive emphasis upon one of its terms, the subject, ignoring
the object, leads to the denial of the reality of everything except
that which appears to the subject. This was so with the Sophists. And
now we have the reappearance of a similar {362} phenomenon. The
Sceptics, of whom we are about to treat, made their appearance at
about the same time as the Stoics and Epicureans. The subjective
tendencies of these latter schools find their logical conclusion in
the Sceptics. Scepticism makes its appearance usually, but not always,
when the spiritual forces of a race are in decay. When its spiritual
and intellectual impulses are spent, the spirit flags, grows weary,
loses confidence, begins to doubt its power of finding truth; and the
despair of truth is scepticism.
Pyrrho.
The first to introduce a thorough-going scepticism among the Greeks
was Pyrrho. He was born about 360 B.C., and was originally a painter.
He took part in the Indian expedition of Alexander the Great. He left
no writings, and we owe our knowledge of his thoughts chiefly to his
disciple Timon of Phlius. His philosophy, in common with all
post-Aristotelian systems, is purely practical in its outlook.
Scepticism, the denial of knowledge, is not posited on account of its
speculative interest, but only because Pyrrho sees in it the road to
happiness, and the escape from the calamities of life.
The proper course of the sage, said Pyrrho, is to ask himself three
questions. Firstly, he must ask what things are and how they are
constituted; secondly, how we are related to these things; thirdly,
what ought to be our attitude towards them. As to what things are, we
can only answer that we know nothing. We only know how things appear
to us, but of their inner substance we are ignorant. The same thing
appears differently to different people, and therefore it is {363}
impossible to know which opinion is right. The diversity of opinion
among the wise, as well as among the vulgar, proves this. To every
assertion the contradictory assertion can be opposed with equally good
grounds, and whatever my opinion, the contrary opinion is believed by
somebody else who is quite as clever and competent to judge as I am.
Opinion we may have, but certainty and knowledge are impossible. Hence
our attitude to things (the third question), ought to be complete
suspense of judgment. We can be certain of nothing, not even of the
most trivial assertions. Therefore we ought never to make any positive
statements on any subject. And the Pyrrhonists were careful to import
an element of doubt even into the most trifling assertions which they
might make in the course of their daily life. They did not say, "it is
so," but "it seems so," or "it appears so to me." Every observation
would be prefixed with a "perhaps," or "it may be."
This absence of certainty applies as much to practical as to
theoretical matters. Nothing is in itself true or false. It only
appears so. In the same way, nothing is in itself good or evil. It is
only opinion, custom, law, which makes it so. When the sage realizes
this, he will cease to prefer one course of action to another, and the
result will be apathy, _"ataraxia."_ All action is the result of
preference, and preference is the belief that one thing is better than
another. If I go to the north, it is because, for one reason or
another, I believe that it is better than going to the south. Suppress
this belief, learn that the one is not in reality better than the
other, but only appears so, and one would go in no direction at all.
Complete suppression of opinion would mean complete {364} suppression
of action, and it was at this that Pyrrho aimed. To have no opinions
was the sceptical maxim, because in practice it meant apathy, total
quietism. All action is founded on belief, and all belief is delusion,
hence the absence of all activity is the ideal of the sage. In this
apathy he will renounce all desires, for desire is the opinion that
one thing is better than another. He will live in complete repose, in
undisturbed tranquillity of soul, free from all delusions. Unhappiness
is the result of not attaining what one desires, or of losing it when
attained. The wise man, being free from desires, is free from
unhappiness. He knows that, though men struggle and fight for what
they desire, vainly supposing some things better than others, such
activity is but a futile struggle about nothing, for all things are
equally indifferent, and nothing matters. Between health and sickness,
life and death, difference there is none. Yet in so far as the sage is
compelled to act, he will follow probability, opinion, custom, and
law, but without any belief in the essential validity or truth of
these criteria.
The New Academy.
The scepticism founded by Pyrrho soon became extinct, but an
essentially similar doctrine began to be taught in the school of
Plato. After the death of Plato, the Academy continued, under various
leaders, to follow in the path marked out by the founder. But, under
the leadership of Arcesilaus, scepticism was introduced into the
school, and from that time, therefore, it is usually known as the New
Academy, for though its historical continuity as a school was not
broken, its essential character underwent change. What especially
{365} characterized the New Academy was its fierce opposition to the
Stoics, whom its members attacked as the chief dogmatists of the time.
Dogmatism, for us, usually means making assertions without proper
grounds. But since scepticism regards all assertions as equally
ill-grounded, the holding of any positive opinion whatever is by it
regarded as dogmatism. The Stoics were the most powerful, influential,
and forceful of all those who at that time held any positive
philosophical opinions. Hence they were singled out for attack by the
New Academy as the greatest of dogmatists. Arcesilaus attacked
especially their doctrine of the criterion of truth. The striking
conviction which, according to the Stoics, accompanies truth, equally
accompanies error. There is no criterion of truth, either in sense or
in reason. "I am certain of nothing," said Arcesilaus; "I am not even
certain that I am certain of nothing."
But the Academics did not draw from their scepticism, as Pyrrho had
done, the full logical conclusion as regards action. Men, they
thought, must act. And, although certainty and knowledge are
impossible, probability is a sufficient guide for action.
Carneades is usually considered the greatest of the Academic Sceptics.
Yet he added nothing essentially new to their conclusions. He appears,
however, to have been a man of singularly acute and powerful mind,
whose destructive criticism acted like a battering-ram not only upon
Stoicism, but upon all established philosophies. As examples of his
thoughts may be mentioned the two following. Firstly, nothing can ever
be proved. For the conclusion must be proved by premises, which in
turn require proof, and so _ad infinitum_. Secondly, {366} it is
impossible to know whether our ideas of an object are true, i.e.,
whether they resemble the object, because we cannot compare our idea
with the object itself. To do so would involve getting outside our own
minds. We know nothing of the object except our idea of it, and
therefore we cannot compare the original and the copy, since we can
see only the copy.
Later Scepticism.
After a period of obliteration, Scepticism again revived in the
Academy. Of this last phase of Greek scepticism, Aenesidemus, a
contemporary of Cicero, is the earliest example, and later we have the
well-known names of Simplicius and Sextus Empiricus. The distinctive
character of later scepticism is its return to the position of Pyrrho.
The New Academy, in its eagerness to overthrow the Stoic dogmatism,
had fallen into a dogmatism of its own. If the Stoics dogmatically
asserted, the Academics equally dogmatically denied. But wisdom lies
neither in assertion nor denial, but in doubt. Hence the later
Sceptics returned to the attitude of complete suspense of judgment.
Moreover, the Academics had allowed the possibility of probable
knowledge. And even this is now regarded as dogmatism. Aenesidemus was
the author of the ten well-known arguments to show the impossibility
of knowledge. They contain in reality, not ten, but only two or three
distinct ideas, several being merely different expressions of the same
line of reasoning. They are as follows. (1) The feelings and
perceptions of all living beings differ. (2) Men have physical and
mental differences, which make things appear different to them. (3)
The different senses give different {367} impressions of things. (4)
Our perceptions depend on our physical and intellectual conditions at
the time of perception. (5) Things appear different in different
positions, and at different distances. (6) Perception is never direct,
but always through a medium. For example, we see things through the
air. (7) Things appear different according to variations in their
quantity, colour, motion, and temperature. (8) A thing impresses us
differently when it is familiar and when it is unfamiliar. (9) All
supposed knowledge is predication. All predicates give us only the
relation of things to other things or to ourselves; they never tell us
what the thing in itself is. (10) The opinions and customs of men are
different in different countries.
{368}