e of aim between the Pyrrhonists, Stoics, and
Epicureans was more apparent than real. To them all philosophy
was a path to lead to happiness. The method of Pyrrhonism was,
however, negative. Its strength consisted in its attacks on
Dogmatism, and not in any positive aim of its own, for its
positive side could not be recognised according to its own
doctrines. Therefore there was no real development in
Pyrrhonism, for a negative thought cannot be developed.

We find, accordingly, from the time of Pyrrho to Sextus, no
growth in breadth of philosophical outlook, only improvement in
methods. Philosophical activity can never have doubt as its aim,
as that would form, as we have shown, a psychological
contradiction. The true essence of Pyrrhonism was passivity, but
passivity can never lead to progress. Much of the polemical work
of Pyrrhonism prepared the way for scientific progress by
providing a vast store of scientific data, but progress was to
the Pyrrhonists impossible. They sounded their own scientific
death-knell by declaring the impossibility of science, and
putting an end to all theories.

The life of all scientific and philosophic progress is in the
attempt to find the hidden truth. To the Sceptic there was no
truth, and there could be no progress. As progress is a law in
the evolution of the human race, so Scepticism as a philosophy
could never be a permanent growth, any more than asceticism in
religion can be a lasting influence. Both of them are only
outgrowths. As the foundation principles of Scepticism were
opposed to anything like real growth, it was a system that could
never originate anything. Pyrrho taught from the beginning that
the Sceptic must live according to law and custom; not, however,
because one law or custom is better than another in itself, but
simply for the sake of peace. This basis of action was itself a
death-blow to all reform in social or political life. It was a
selfish, negative way of seeking what was, after all, a positive
thing, the [Greek: ataraxia] that the Sceptic desired. Life with
the Pyrrhonist was phenomenal, and not phenomenal simply in
regard to the outer world, but also subjectively, and no
absolute knowledge of the subjective life or of personal
existence was possible.

The cause of the downfall of Pyrrhonism lay in the fact that it
had nothing to offer to humanity in the place of what it had
destroyed. It made no appeal to human sympathies, and ignored
all the highes