'Appearance' (To MrP)

Hi MrP. Throughout my paper, I’ve used several times the term appearance(s), and I know that you’re not comfortable with it at least in some cases. Before copying the examples, I’ll copy two sentences I’ve seen in a couple of papers about Pyrrhonism by scholars from the U.S. and the U.K.:

1) “None the less, I may well retain some measure of those appearances I had prior to my reflection”.

2) “So for the sceptic, not only the content of what he says about the final end, but also the assumption that other people are even listening, and the prediction that what has happened to him will happen to them, are part of his own appearances”.

Now, I’ll copy my sentences:

- “The passage of AD v 89 already discussed is also of central importance to this question, since there Sextus says that that which each person regards as good is that which appears so to himself, and that what appears good to each person is not so by nature. Hence, when one refrains from affirming that one’s personal goods are by nature so, one is not left with real relative goods, but just with one’s own appearances.”

- “This lack of dogmatic commitment is also clearly expressed in the Tenth Mode, where Sextus says that one must suspend judgment about the objective validity of the appearances one has by virtue of the laws and customs of one’s community.”

- “In sum, the philanthropic Pyrrhonist is just acting in accordance with his appearances, without affirming or denying that they correspond to the real nature of things, that is, without affirming or denying that the Dogmatists are objectively ill or that philanthropy is the correct attitude that one must adopt.”

- “Of course, in this case too the Skeptic is not committed to any belief, but following his appearances, just as in the case of his acting in accordance with the laws and customs of his community.”

- “It may be objected that the Pyrrhonist’s guiding his actions solely by his appearances, in the way that has just been suggested, would necessarily entail his adopting random courses of action.

- “For the Skeptic can argue that in his philanthropic therapy he does not go beyond the realm of his own appearances…”

- “This applies to the appearances the Skeptic has by virtue of the four parts of the everyday observance, so that he is passive with respect to the appearances he has by virtue of the laws and customs of his community and the skills he has gained.”

- “On the contrary, he is aware that as long as he follows a given set of laws and customs, and has a given skill, he necessarily and involuntarily has certain appearances…”

- “In the second place, the Pyrrhonist’s guiding his actions by the appearances he has by virtue of a series of factors, because such appearances are forced upon him and are the only practical criterion with which he is left to cope with daily life after he has adopted total suspension of judgment.”

Do you then think that my sentences are correct, or do you see a difference between my use and that of the scholars? The problem lies perhaps in that this is a particular use of ‘appearance’, entirely different from the ordinary one. Here it means something like ‘impression’ or ‘representation’.

Sextus