his
argument of pre-established harmony between the faculties of the
soul and the objects of nature, is the one that has been used in
all ages to combat philosophical teaching that denies that we
apprehend the external world as it is. It was used against Kant
by his opponents, who thought in this way to refute his
teachings.[3] The Sceptics could not, of course, accept a theory
of nature that included the soul and the external world in one
harmonious whole, but Sextus in his discussion of the third
Trope does not refute this argument as fully as he does later in
his work against logic.[4] He simply states here that
philosophers themselves cannot agree as to what nature is, and
furthermore, that a philosopher himself is a part of the
discord, and to be judged, rather than being capable of judging,
and that no conclusion can be reached by those who are
themselves an element of the uncertainty.[5]

[1] _Hyp._ I. 96-97.

[2] _Adv. Math._ VII. 93.

[3] Ueberweg _Op. cit._ 195.

[4] _Adv. Math._ VII. 354.

[5] _Hyp._ I. 98-99.

_The Fourth Trope_. This Trope limits the argument to each
separate sense, and the effect is considered of the condition of
body and mind upon sense-perception in relation to the several
sense-organs.[1] The physical states which modify
sense-perception are health and illness, sleeping and waking,
youth and age, hunger and satiety, drunkenness and sobriety. All
of these conditions of the body entirely change the character of
the mental images, producing different judgments of the color,
taste, and temperature of objects, and of the character of
sounds. A man who is asleep is in a different world from one
awake, the existence of both worlds being relative to the
condition of waking and sleeping.[2]

The subjective states which Sextus mentions here as modifying
the character of the mental representations are hating or
loving, courage or fear, sorrow or joy, and sanity or
insanity.[3] No man is ever twice in exactly the same condition
of body or mind, and never able to review the differences of his
ideas as a sum total, for those of the present moment only are
subject to careful inspection.[4] Furthermore, no one is free
from the influence of all conditions of body or mind, so that he
can be unbiassed to judge his ideas, and no criterion can be
established that can be shown to be true, but on the contrary,
whatever course is pursued on the subject, both the criterion
and