_The General Method of Scepticism._
Since we have said that [Greek: ataraxia] follows the suspension 31
of judgment in regard to everything, it behooves us to
explain how the suspension of judgment takes place. Speaking in
general it takes place through placing things in opposition to
each other. We either place phenomena in opposition to
phenomena, or the intellectual in opposition to the
intellectual, or reciprocally. For example, we place 32
phenomena in opposition to phenomena when we say that this tower
appears round from a distance but square near by; the
intellectual in opposition to the intellectual, when to the one
who from the order of the heavens builds a tower of reasoning to
prove that a providence exists, we oppose the fact that
adversity often falls to the good and prosperity to the evil,
and that therefore we draw the conclusion that there is no
providence. The intellectual is placed in opposition to 33
phenomena, as when Anaxagoras opposed the fact that snow is
white, by saying that snow is frozen water, and, as water is
black, snow must also be black. Likewise we sometimes place the
present in opposition to the present, similarly to the
above-mentioned cases, and sometimes also the present in
opposition to the past or the future. As for example, when
someone proposes an argument to us that we cannot refute, we say
to him, "Before the founder of the sect to which you belong 34
was born, the argument which you propose in accordance with it
had not appeared as a valid argument, but was dormant in nature,
so in the same way it is possible that its refutation also
exists in nature, but has not yet appeared to us, so that it is
not at all necessary for us to agree with an argument that now
seems to be strong." In order to make it clearer to us what 35
we mean by these oppositions, I will proceed to give the Tropes
([Greek: tropoi]), through which the suspension of judgment is
produced, without asserting anything about their meaning or
their number, because they may be unsound, or there may be more
than I shall enumerate.