BOOK II. XIX. 33-XX. 5
you, or in the nature of the thing. The thing itself is possible and is the only thing that is under our control. Consequently, then, the fault lies either in me, or in you, or, what is nearer the truth, in us both. What then? Would you like to have us at last begin to introduce here a purpose such as I have described?[1] Let us let bygones be bygones. Only let us begin, and, take my word for it, you shall see.
CHAPTER XX
Against Epicureans and Academics[2]
The propositions which are true and evident must of necessity be employed even by those who contradict them; and one might consider as perhaps the strongest proof of a proposition being evident the fact that even the man who contradicts it finds himself obliged at the same time to employ it. For example, if a man should contradict the proposition that there is a universal statement which is true, it is clear that he must assert the contrary, and say: No universal statement is true. Slave, this is not true, either. For what else does this assertion amount to than: If a statement is universal, it is false? Again, if a man comes forward and says, "I would have you know that nothing is knowable, but that everything is uncertain"; or if someone else says, "Believe me, and it will be to your advantage, when I say: One ought not to believe a man at all"; or again, someone else, "Learn from me, man, that it is impossible to learn anything; 5it
- ↑ In § 29.
- ↑ The essential position of the philosophers of the New or Middle Academy as exemplified by Arcesilaus and Carneades, which Epictetus attacks here, was the denial of the possibility of knowledge, or of the existence of any positive proof, and the maintenance of an attitude of suspended judgement.
