hings about
which a difference of opinion exists which cannot be judged. If
it can be judged, then we ask how it is to be judged? For 171
example, the sensible, for we shall limit the argument first to
this--Is it to be judged by sensible or by intellectual
standards? For if it is to be judged by a sensible one, since we
are in doubt about the sensible, that will also need something
else to sustain it; and if that proof is also something
sensible, something else will again be necessary to prove it,
and so on _in infinitum_. If, on the contrary, the sensible must
be judged by something intellectual, as there is disagreement 172
in regard to the intellectual, this intellectual thing will
require also judgment and proof. Now, how is it to be proved?
If by something intellectual, it will likewise be thrown
into _infinitum_; if by something sensible, as the intellectual
has been taken for the proof of the sensible, and the sensible
has been taken for that of the intellectual, the _circulus in
probando_ is introduced. If, however, in order to escape 173
from this, the one who is speaking to us expects us to take
something for granted which has not been proved, in order to
prove what follows, the hypothetical Trope is introduced, which
provides no way of escape. For if the one who makes the
hypothesis is worthy of confidence, we should in every case be
no less worthy of confidence in making a contrary hypothesis. If
the one who makes the assumption assumes something true, he
makes it suspicious by using it as a hypothesis, and not as an
established fact; if it is false, the foundation of the
reasoning is unsound. If a hypothesis is any help towards a 174
trustworthy result, let the thing in question itself be assumed,
and not something else, by which, forsooth, one would establish
the thing under discussion. If it is absurd to assume the thing
questioned, it is also absurd to assume that upon which it
rests. That all things belonging to the senses are also in 175
relation to something else is evident, because they are in
relation to those who perceive them. It is clear then, that
whatever thing of sense is brought before us, it may be easily
referred to one of the five Tropes. And we come to a similar
conclusion in regard to intellectual things. For if it should be
said that there is a difference of opinion regarding them which
cannot be judged, it will be granted that we must suspend t