[§33]. Veri et falsi: these words Lamb. considered spurious in the first clause, and Halm brackets; but surely their repetition is pointed and appropriate. "You talk about a rule for distinguishing between the true and the false while you do away with the notion of true and false altogether." The discussion here really turns on the use of terms. If it is fair to use the term "true" to denote the probably true, the Academics are not open to the criticism here attempted; cf. [111] tam vera quam falsa cernimus. Ut inter rectum et pravum: the sceptic would no more allow the absolute certainty of this distinction than of the other. Communis: the απαραλλακτος of Sextus; "in whose vision true and false are confused." Cf. κοινη φαντασια αληθους και ψευδους Sext. A.M. VII. 164 (R. and P. 410), also 175. Notam: the σημειον of Sextus; cf. esp. P.H. II. 97 sq. Eodem modo falsum: Sext. A.M. VII. 164 (R. and P. 410) ουδεμια εστιν αληθης φαντασια ‛οια ουκ αν γενοιτο ψευδης. Ut si quis: Madv. in an important n. on D.F. IV. 30 explains this thus; ista ratione si quis ... privaverit, possit dicere. I do not think our passage at all analogous to those he quotes, and still prefer to construe quem as a strong relative, making a pause between quis and quem. Visionem: Simply another trans. of φαντασια. Ut Carneades: see Sext. A.M. VII. 166 την τε πιθανην φαντασιαν και την πιθανην ‛αμα και απερισπαστον και διεξωδευμενην (R. and P. 411). As the trans. of the latter phrase in Zeller 524 "probable undisputed and tested" is imperfect, I will give Sextus' own explanation. The merely πιθανη is that sensation which at first sight, without any further inquiry, seems probably true (Sext. A.M. VII. 167—175). Now no sensation is perceived alone; the percipient subject has always other synchronous sensations which are able to turn him aside (περισπαν, περιελκειν) from the one which is the immediate object of his attention. This last is only called απερισπαστος when examination has shown all the concomitant sensations to be in harmony with it. (Sext. as above 175—181.) The word "undisputed," therefore, is a misleading trans. of the term. The διεξωδευμενη ("thoroughly explored") requires more than a mere apparent agreement of the concomitant sensations with the principal one. Circumstances quite external to the sensations themselves must be examined; the time at which they occur, or during which they continue; the condition of the space within which they occur, and the apparent intervals between the person and the objects; the state of the air; the disposition of the person's mind, and the soundness or unsoundness of his eyes (Sext. 181—189).
[§34]. Communitas: απαραλλαξια or επιμιξια των φαντασιων; Sext. A.M. VII. 403, P.H. I. 127. Proprium: so Sext. often uses ιδιομα, e.g. A. M. IX. 410. Signo notari: signo for nota, merely from love of variety. The in before communi, though bracketed by Halm after Manut., Lamb. is perfectly sound; it means "within the limits of," and is so used after notare in De Or., III. 186. Convicio: so Madv. Em. 143 corrected the corrupt MSS. readings, comparing Orator 160, Ad Fam. XV. 18. A.W. Zumpt on Pro Murena 13 rightly defines the Ciceronian use of the word, "Non unum maledictum appellatur convicium sed multorum verborum quasi vociferatio." He is wrong however in thinking that Cic. only uses the word once in the plural (Ad Att. II. 18, 1), for it occurs N.D. II. 20, and elsewhere. Perspicua: εναργη, a term used with varying signification by all the later Greek schools. Verum illud quidem: "which is indeed what they call 'true'." Impressum: n. on [18]. Percipi atque comprehendi: Halm retains the barbarous ac of the MSS. before the guttural. It is quite impossible that Cic. could have written it. The two verbs are both trans. of καταλαμβανεσθαι; Cic. proceeds as usual on the principle thus described in D.F. III. 14 erit notius quale sit, pluribus notatum vocabulis idem declarantibus. Subtiliter: Cic.'s constant trans. of ακριβως or κατ' ακριβειαν (passim in Sext. e.g. P.H. II. 123). Inaniterne moveatur: MSS. agree in ve for ne, on which see M.D.F. IV. 76. Inaniter = κενως = ψευδως. Cf. n. on I. [35], also II. [47], D.F. V. 3 (inaniter moveri), T.D. IV. 13, De Div. II. 120, 126, 140 (per se moveri), Greek κενοπαθειν (Sext. P.H. II. 49), κενοπαθεια (= inanis motus, Sext. A.M. VIII. 184), κενοπαθηματα και αναπλασματα της διανοιας (ib. VIII. 354), διακενος ‛ελκυσμος (ib. VII. 241), διακενος φαντασια (ib. VIII. 67), and the frequent phrase κινημα της διανοιας. For the meaning see n. on [47]. Relinquitur: so in Sext. απολειπειν is constantly used as the opposite of αναιρειν (tollere).
[§35]. Neminem etc.: they are content to make strong statements without any mark of certainty. Primo quasi adspectu: the merely πιθανη φαντασια is here meant; see [33].
[§36]. Ex circumspectione, etc.: the διεξωδευμενη; see n. on [33]. Primum quia ... deinde: for the slight anacoluthia, cf. M.D.F ed. II. p. 796. Iis visis, etc.: i.e. if you have a number of things, emitting a number of appearances, and you cannot be sure of uniting each appearance to the thing from which it proceeds, then you can have no faith in any appearance even if you have gone through the process required by Carneades' rules. Ad verum ipsum: cf. [40]. Quam proxime: cf. [47], and also [7]. Insigne: σημειον, the same as nota and signum above. Quo obscurato: so Lamb. for MSS. obscuro which Halm keeps. Cf. quam obscurari volunt in [42] and quo sublato in [33]. Argumentum: Cic. seems to be thinking of the word τεκμηριον, which, however, the Stoics hardly use. Id quod significatur: το σημειωντον in Sext.
[§§37]—[40]. Summary The distinction of an animal is to act. You must either therefore deprive it of sensation, or allow it to assent to phenomena ([37]). Mind, memory, the arts and virtue itself, require a firm assent to be given to some phenomena, he therefore who does away with assent does away with all action in life ([38], [39]).
[§37]. Explicabamus: [19]—[21] and [30] (quae vis esset in sensibus). Inanimum: not inanimatum, cf. M.D.F. IV. 36. Agit aliquid: I. [23]. Quae est in nostra: Walker's insertion of non before est is needless, cf. n. on I. [40]. It is the impact of the sensation from without, not the assent given to it, that is involuntary (Sext. A.M. VIII. 397 το μεν γαρ φαντασιωθηναι αβουλητον ην). For in potestate cf. De Fato 9, N.D. I. 69
[§38]. Eripitur: cf. [30]. Neque sentire: Christ om. neque; but the sceptics throughout are supposed to rob people of their senses. Cedere: cf. εικειν, ειξις in Sext. P.H. I. 193, 230, Diog. VII. 51, των δε αισθητικων μετα ειξεως και συγκαταθεσεως γινονται [‛αι φαντασια]; also [66] of this book. Οικειον: cf. [34]. Adsentitur statim: this really contradicts a good deal that has gone before, esp. [20]. Memoriam: cf. [22]. In nostra potestate: this may throw light on fragm. [15] of the Ac. Post., which see.
[§39]. Virtus: even the Stoics, who were fatalists as a rule, made moral action depend on the freedom of the will; see n. on I. [40]. Ante videri aliquid for the doctrine cf. [25], for the passive use of videri, n. on [25]. Adsentiatur: the passive use is illustrated by Madv. Em. 131, the change of construction from infin. to subj. after necesse est on D.F. V. 25. Tollit e vita: so De Fato 29.
[§§40]—[42]. Summary. The Academics have a regular method. They first give a general definition of sensation, and then lay down the different classes of sensations. Then they put forward their two strong arguments, (1) things which produce sensations such as might have been produced in the same form by other things, cannot be partly capable of being perceived, partly not capable, (2) sensations must be assumed to be of the same form if our faculties do not enable us to distinguish between them. Then they proceed. Sensations are partly true, partly false, the false cannot of course be real perceptions, while the true are always of a form which the false may assume. Now sensations which are indistinguishable from false cannot be partly perceptions, partly not. There is therefore no sensation which is also a perception ([40]). Two admissions, they say, are universally made, (1) false sensations cannot be perceptions, (2) sensations which are indistinguishable from false, cannot be partly perceptions, partly not. The following two assertions they strive to prove, (1) sensations are partly true, partly false, (2) every sensation which proceeds from a reality, has a form which it might have if it proceeded from an unreality ([41]). To prove these propositions, they divide perceptions into those which are sensations, and those which are deduced from sensations; after which they show that credit cannot be given to either class ([42]). [The word "perception" is used to mean "a certainly known sensation.">[
[§40]. Quasi fundamenta: a trans. probably of θεμελιος or the like; cf. ‛ωσπερ θεμελιος in Sext. A.M. V. 50. Artem: method, like τεχνη, cf. M.D.F. III. 4, Mayor on Iuv. VII. 177. Vim: the general character which attaches to all φαντασιαι; genera the different classes of φαντασιαι. Totidem verbis: of course with a view to showing that nothing really corresponded to the definition. Carneades largely used the reductio ad absurdum method. Contineant ... quaestionem: cf. [22] and T.D. IV. 65 una res videtur causam continere. Quae ita: it is essential throughout this passage to distinguish clearly the sensation (visum) from the thing which causes it. Here the things are meant; two things are supposed to cause two sensations so similar that the person who has one of the sensations cannot tell from which of the two things it comes. Under these circumstances the sceptics urge that it is absurd to divide things into those which can be perceived (known with certainty) and those which cannot. Nihil interesse autem: the sceptic is not concerned to prove the absolute similarity of the two sensations which come from the two dissimilar things, it is enough if he can show that human faculties are not perfect enough to discern whatever difference may exist, cf. [85]. Alia vera sunt: Numenius in Euseb. Pr. Ev. XIV. 8, 4 says Carneades allowed that truth and falsehood (or reality and unreality) could be affirmed of things, though not of sensations. If we could only pierce through a sensation and arrive at its source, we should be able to tell whether to believe the sensation or not. As we cannot do this, it is wrong to assume that sensation and thing correspond. Cf. Sext. P.H. I. 22 περι μεν του φαισθαι τοιον η τοιον το ‛υποκειμενον (i.e. the thing from which the appearance proceeds) ουδεις ισως αμφισβητει, περι δε του ει τοιουτον εστιν ‛οποιον φαινεται ζητειται. Neither Carneades nor Arcesilas ever denied, as some modern sceptics have done, the actual existence of things which cause sensations, they simply maintained that, granting the existence of the things, our sensations do not give us correct information about them. Eiusdem modi: cf. [33] eodem modo. Non posse accidere: this is a very remarkable, and, as Madv. (D.F. I. 30) thinks, impossible, change from recta oratio to obliqua. Halm with Manut. reads potest. Cf. [101].