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AENESIDEMUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 258 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AENESIDEMUS , See also:

Greek philosopher, was See also:born at See also:Cnossus in See also:Crete and taught at See also:Alexandria, probably during the first See also:century B.C. He was the See also:leader of what is sometimes known as the third sceptical school and revived to a See also:great extent the See also:doctrine of Pyrrho and See also:Timon. His See also:chief See also:work was the Pyrrhonian Principles addressed to See also:Lucius Tubero. His See also:philosophy consisted of four See also:main parts, the reasons for See also:scepticism and doubt, the attack on causality and truth, a See also:physical theory and a theory of morality. Of these the two former are important. The reasons for doubt are given in the See also:form of the ten " tropes ": (I) different animals See also:manifest different modes of See also:perception; (2) similar See also:differences are seen among individual men; (3) even for the same See also:man, sense-given data are self-contradictory, (4) vary from See also:time to time with physical changes, and (5) according to See also:local relations; (6) and (7) See also:objects are known only in-directly through the See also:medium of See also:air, moisture, &c., and are in a See also:condition of perpetual See also:change in See also:colour, temperature, See also:size and See also:motion; (8) all perceptions are relative and interact one upon another; (9) our impressions become less deep by repetition and See also:custom; and (to) all men are brought up with different beliefs, under different See also:laws and social conditions. Truth varies infinitely under circumstances whose relative See also:weight cannot be accurately gauged. There is, therefore, no See also:absolute knowledge, for every man has different perceptions, and, further, arranges and See also:groups his data in methods See also:peculiar to himself; so that the sum See also:total is a quantity with a purely subjective validity. The second See also:part of his work consists in the attack upon the theory of causality, in which he adduces almost entirely those considerations which are the basis of See also:modern scepticism. Cause has no existence apart from,the mind which perceives; its validity is ideal, or, as See also:Kant would have said, subjective. The relation between cause and effect is unthinkable. If the two things are different, they are either simultaneous or in See also:succession.

If simultaneous, cause is effect and effect cause. If not, since effect cannot precede cause, cause must precede effect, and there must be an instant when cause is not effective, that is, is not itself. By these and similar arguments he arrives at the fundamental principle of Scepticism, the See also:

radical and universal opposition of causes; 7ravri Abyq, Aoyos itpelKetras. Having reached II this conclusion, he was able to assimilate the physical theory of Heraclitus, as is explained in the Hypotyposes of Sextus Empiricus. For admitting that contraries co-exist for the perceiving subject, he was able to assert the co-existence of contrary qualities in the same See also:object. Having thus disposed of the ideas of truth and causality, he proceeds to undermine the ethical criterion, and denies that any man can aim at See also:Good, See also:Pleasure or Happiness as an absolute, See also:concrete ideal. All actions are product of pleasure and See also:pain, good and evil. The end of ethical endeavour is the conclusion that all endeavour is vain and illogical. The main tendency of this destructive scepticism is essentially the same from its first See also:crystallization by Aenesidemus down to the most advanced sceptics of to-See also:day (see SCEPTICISM). For the immediate successors of Aenesidemus see See also:AGRIPPA, SEXTUS EMPIRICUS. See also See also:CARNEADES and See also:ARCESILAUS. Of the IIvppWVecoc Abyoc nothing remains; we have, however, an See also:analysis in the Myriobiblion of See also:Photius.

See See also:

Zeller's See also:History of Greek Philosophy; E. See also:Saisset, 'Enesideme, See also:Pascal, Kant; See also:Ritter and See also:Preller, §§ 364-J70.

End of Article: AENESIDEMUS

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