Miscellanies 8.5.16
Summary: The skeptic who says truth cannot be known contradicts himself; a school of thought is defined as adherence to a coherent set of doctrines, and even dogmatists suspend judgment on some questions.
Greek text · Stählin 2
Ἔτι εἰ τοῦτο αὐτό ἐστι τὸ ἀληθὲς τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι τὸ ἀληθές, οὐδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀληθές τι παρʼ ἐκείνου δίδοται. εἰ δὲ καὶ τοῦτο ἀμφισβητήσιμον ἐρεῖ τὸ ἀγνοεῖν τἀληθές, ἐν αὐτῷ τούτῳ δίδωσιν εἶναι τὸ ἀληθὲς γνώριμον, ἐν ᾧ τὴν περὶ αὐτοῦ ἐποχὴν φαίνεται μὴ βεβαιῶν. Αἵρεσίς ἐστι πρόσκλισις δογμάτων ἤ, ὥς τινες, πρόσκλισις δόγμασι πολλοῖς ἀκολουθίαν πρὸς ἄλληλα καὶ τὰ φαινόμενα περιέχουσι πρὸς τὸ εὖ ζῆν συντείνουσα. καὶ τὸ μὲν δόγμα ἐστὶ κατάληψίς τις λογική. κατάληψις δὲ ἕξις καὶ συγκατάθεσις τῆς διανοίας. Οὐ μόνον οἱ ἐφεκτικοί. ἀλλὰ καὶ πᾶς δογματικὸς ἔν τισιν ἐπέχειν εἴωθεν ἤτοι παρὰ γνώμης ἀσθένειαν ἢ παρὰ πραγμάτων ἀσάφειαν ἢ παρὰ τὴν τῶν λόγων ἰσοσθένειαν. Αἱ τῶν ζητήσεων ἔφοδοι καὶ ἀρχαὶ περὶ ταῦτα καὶ ἐν τούτοις εἰσίν.
English · Claude translation
Further, if the truth is just this, not to know the truth, then from the start nothing true is granted by him. But if he says that this too, ignorance of the truth, is disputable, in this very thing he grants that the truth is knowable, in that he evidently does not affirm his suspension about it. A school is an inclination toward doctrines, or, as some say, an inclination toward many doctrines that have coherence with one another and with appearances, tending toward living well. And a doctrine is a rational apprehension; and apprehension is a state and an assent of the mind. Not only those who suspend judgment, but every dogmatist too is accustomed to suspend judgment on some matters, either from weakness of mind, or from the obscurity of the things, or from the equal force of the arguments. The approaches to inquiries and their starting points concern these things and are found in them.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “School” renders αἵρεσις, here a philosophical school, not “heresy”; the definition resembles those in Diogenes Laertius 1.20 and Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1.16. “Apprehension” (κατάληψις) and “assent” (συγκατάθεσις) are Stoic terms; “equal force” renders ἰσοσθένεια. The digital text repeats the words τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι τὸ ἀληθές (“not to know the truth”).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (words repeated in the digital text): τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι τὸ ἀληθές τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι τὸ ἀληθές, → τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι τὸ ἀληθές,.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 8.5.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/8/5/16/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 8.5.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/8/5/16/).
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