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The Project Gutenberg eBook of ... e??a??pte??, e??a??pt????, d???t???? (the last in Sext. A.M. VIII. 277) often recur in Greek. Primum esse ... nihil interesse: there is no inconsistency. Carneades allowed that visa, in themselves, might be true or false, but affirmed that human faculties were incapable of distinguishing those visa which proceed from real things and give a correct representation of the things, from those which either are mere phantoms or, having a real source, do not correctly represent it. Lucullus confuses essential with apparent difference. Non iungitur: a supposed case of d?a?t?s??, which is opposed to s??a?t?s?? and explained in Sext. A.M. VIII. 430. §45. Assentati: here simply = assensi. Praeteritis: here used in the strong participial sense, "in the class of things passed over," cf. in remissis Orat. 59. Primum igitur ... sed tamen: for the slight anacoluthia cf. Madv. Gram. 480. Iis qui videntur: Goer. is qui videtur, which is severely criticised by Madv. Em. 150. For Epicurus' view of sensation see n. on 79, 80. §§46—48. Summary. The refusal of people to assent to the innate clearness of some phenomena (e?a??e?a) is due to two causes, (1) they do not make a serious endeavour to see the light by which these phenomena are surrounded, (2) their faith is shaken by sceptic paradoxes (46). The sceptics argue thus: you allow that mere phantom sensations are often seen in dreams, why then do you not allow what is easier, that two sensations caused by two really existing things may be mistaken the one for the other? (47). Further, they urge that a phantom sensation produces very often the same effect as a real one. The dogmatists say they admit that mere phantom sensations do command assent. Why should they not admit that they command assent when they so closely resemble real ones as to be indistinguishable from them? (48) §46. Circumfusa sint: Goer. retains the MSS. sunt on the ground that the clause quanta sint is inserted pa?e??et????! Orelli actually follows him. For the phrase cf. 122 circumfusa tenebris. Interrogationibus: cf. I. 5 where I showed that the words interrogatio and conclusio are convertible. I may add that in Sextus pure syllogisms are very frequently called e??t?se??, and that he often introduces a new argument by e??tata? ?a? t??t?, when there is nothing interrogatory about the argument at all. Dissolvere: ap???es?a? in Sext. Occurrere: cf. 44. §47. Confuse loqui: the mark of a bad dialectician, affirmed of Epicurus in D.F. II. 27. Nulla sunt: on the use of nullus for non in Cic. cf. Madv. Gram. 455 obs. 5. The usage is mostly colloquial and is very common in Plaut. and Terence, while in Cic. it occurs mostly in the Letters. Inaniter: cf. 34. There are two ways in which a sensation may be false, (1) it may come from one really existent thing, but be supposed by the person who feels it to be caused by a totally different thing, (2) it may be a mere fa?tasµa or a?ap?asµa t?? d?a???a?, a phantom behind which there is no reality at all. Quae in somnis videantur: for the support given by Stoics to all forms of divination see Zeller 166, De Div. I. 7, etc. Quaerunt: a slight anacoluthon from dicatis above. Quonam modo ... nihil sit omnino: this difficult passage can only be properly explained in connection with 50 and with the general plan of the Academics expounded in 41. After long consideration I elucidate it as follows. The whole is an attempt to prove the proposition announced in 41 and 42 viz. omnibus veris visis adiuncta esse falsa. The criticism in 50 shows that the argument is meant to be based on the assumption known to be Stoic, omnia deum posse. If the god can manufacture (efficere) sensations which are false, but probable (as the Stoics say he does in dreams), why can he not manufacture false sensations which are so probable as to closely resemble true ones, or to be only with difficulty distinguishable from the true, or finally to be utterly indistinguishable from the true (this meaning of inter quae nihil sit omnino is fixed by 40, where see n.)? Probabilia, then, denotes false sensations such as have only a slight degree of resemblance to the true, by the three succeeding stages the resemblance is made complete. The word probabilia is a sort of tertiary predicate after efficere ("to manufacture so as to be probable"). It must not be repeated after the second efficere, or the whole sense will be inverted and this section placed out of harmony with 50. Plane proxime: = quam proxime of 36. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14970/14970-h/14970-h.htm[1/5/2010 10:31:57 AM]
The Project Gutenberg eBook of ... §48. Ipsa per sese: simply = inaniter as in 34, 47, i.e. without the approach of any external object. Cogitatione: the only word in Latin, as d?a???a is in Greek, to express our "imagination." Non numquam: so Madv. for MSS. non inquam. Goer. after Manut. wrote non inquiunt with an interrogation at omnino. Veri simile est: so Madv. D.F. III. 58 for sit. The argument has the same purpose as that in the last section, viz to show that phantom sensations may produce the same effect on the mind as those which proceed from realities. Ut si qui: the ut here is merely "as," "for instance," cf. n. on 33. Nihil ut esset: the ut here is a repetition of the ut used several times in the early part of the sentence, all of them alike depend on sic. Lamb. expunged ut before esset and before quicquam. Intestinum et oblatum: cf. Sext. A.M. VII. 241 ?t?? t?? e?t?? ? t?? e? ??µ? ? pa???, and the two classes of falsa visa mentioned in n. on 47. Sin autem sunt, etc.: if there are false sensations which are probable (as the Stoics allow), why should there not be false sensations so probable as to be with difficulty distinguishable from the true? The rest exactly as in 47. §§49—53. Antiochus attacked these arguments as soritae, and therefore faulty (49). The admission of a certain amount of similarity between true and false sensations does not logically lead to the impossibility of distinguishing between the true and the false (50). We contend that these phantom sensations lack that self evidence which we require before giving assent. When we have wakened from the dream, we make light of the sensations we had while in it (51). But, say our opponents, while they last our dreaming sensations are as vivid as our waking ones. This we deny (52). "But," say they, "you allow that the wise man in madness withholds his assent." This proves nothing, for he will do so in many other circumstances in life. All this talk about dreamers, madmen and drunkards is unworthy our attention (53). §49. Antiochus: Sext. often quotes him in the discussion of this and similar subjects. Ipsa capita: a?ta ta ?efa?a?a. Interrogationis: the sorites was always in the form of a series of questions, cf. De Div. II. 11 (where Cic. says the Greek word was already naturalised, so that his proposed trans. acervalis is unnecessary), Hortens. fragm. 47, and n. on 92. Hoc vocant: i.e. hoc genus, cf. D.F. III. 70 ex eo genere, quae prosunt. Vitiosum: cf. D.F. IV. 50 ille sorites, quo nihil putatis (Stoici) vitiosius. Most edd. read hos, which indeed in 136 is a necessary em. for MSS. hoc. Tale visum: i.e. falsum. Dormienti: sc. t???. Ut probabile sit, etc.: cf. 47, 48 and notes. Primum quidque: not quodque as Klotz; cf. M.D.F. II. 105, to whose exx. add De Div. II. 112, and an instance of proximus quisque in De Off. II. 75. Vitium: cf. vitiosum above. §50. Omnia deum posse: this was a principle generally admitted among Stoics at least, see De Div. II. 86. For the line of argument here cf. De Div. II. 106 fac dare deos, quod absurdum est. Eadem: this does not mean that the two sensations are merged into one, but merely that when one of them is present, it cannot be distinguished from the other; see n. on 40. Similes: after this sunt was added by Madv. In suo genere essent: substitute esse viderentur for essent, and you get the real view of the Academic, who would allow that things in their essence are divisible into sharply-defined genera, but would deny that the sensations which proceed from or are caused by the things, are so divisible. §51. Una depulsio: cf. 128 (omnium rerum una est definitio comprehendendi), De Div. II. 136 (omnium somniorum una ratio est). In quiete: = in somno, a rather poetical usage. Narravit: Goer., Orelli, Klotz alter into narrat, most wantonly. Visus Homerus, etc.: this famous dream of Ennius, recorded in his Annals, is referred to by Lucr. I. 124, Cic. De Rep. VI. 10 (Somn. Scip. c. 1), Hor. Epist. II. 1, 50. Simul ut: rare in Cic., see Madv. D.F. II. 33, who, however, unduly restricts the usage. In three out of the five passages where he allows it to stand, the ut precedes a vowel; Cic. therefore used it to avoid writing ac before a vowel, so that in D.F. II. 33 ut should probably be written (with Manut. and others) for et which Madv. ejects. §52. Eorumque: MSS. om. que. Dav. wrote ac before eorum, this however is as impossible in http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14970/14970-h/14970-h.htm[1/5/2010 10:31:57 AM]
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