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Sextus Posted 22 years ago
Grammar

Grammar Questions

Hi MrP, assuming that you might take a look at these sentences. If you have no background in philosophy, how do you know about Sextus Empiricus? Well, here are some other doubts I have:

1) "This is the only passage of A's work which presents the notion of philanthropy as the key to the understanding of the Skeptic's argumentation" (key to?).

2) "Unperturbedness closely followed by chance he who suspended judgment".

3) "There are other texts which make reference to the notion of unperturbedness as the Skeptic's end" (is "make reference" ok?).

4) "He affirmst that the Skeptic's peace of mind is boring or produces no enjoyment" (is "produce enjoyment" correct?).

5) "This influence may perfectly well be an aspect of the third factor he explains" (is "may perfeclty well be" correct?)

6) "If this is so, a person could perfectly well be a Skeptic without having any concern for the welfare of others" (idem 5).

7) "If this is correct, he would be aware that..." (In this case, can I use the present tense with the "would" in the second clause?).

8) "I don't think that such an adherence necessarily entails the complete basis of action upon tradition and law" (basis?).

9) "In section one, I shall analyze the philanthropy underlying his argumentative practice" (Can you think of a synonym for "underlying"?).

Thanks,

All the best wishes,

Sextus
  

Top answer

Hello Sextus Well, if I have a background, it's probably in Classics, so that's where I ran into Sextus E. But what little I knew has mostly gone. Just a few ragged synapses dangling in otherwise vacant darkness...

  • Hello Sextus Well, if I have a background, it's probably in Classics, so that's where I ran into Sextus E.
  • But what little I knew has mostly gone.
  • Just a few ragged synapses dangling in otherwise vacant darkness...
  • These are mostly minor changes, so don't worry too much: 1) Change to: "as key to".
  • 2) "Unperturbedness closely followed by chance he who suspended judgment".
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14 Answers
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Hello Sextus

Well, if I have a background, it's probably in Classics, so that's where I ran into
Sextus E. But what little I knew has mostly gone. Just a few ragged synapses
dangling in otherwise vacant darkness...

These are mostly minor changes, so don't worry too much:

1) Change to: "as key to".

2) "Unperturbedness closely followed by chance h
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Hi MrP, thanks for your answers. I have some more questions.

1) "Unperturbedness closely followed by chance he who suspended judgment". This is actually a translation of a Greek text. A translator renders it thus: "When they suspended judgment, tranquillity followed fortuistously". But this is not literal. If I knew that you know Greek, I could transliterate the text.

2) "I d
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Hello Sextus

1) Yes please, could you transliterate this one? I think I know what the
translator means, but would like to check!

2) Fine.

3) That sounds fine. 'On each individual's make-up.'

4) "We are passive with regard to our bodily affections in the sense that
at least up to now we have not been able to eliminate completely the
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Hi. Here they go:

1) "epischonti de autô tychikôs parêkolouthêsen hê en toîs doxastoîs ataraxia". "And unperturbedness in matters of opinion closely followed by change he who suspended judgment".

2) "At least most of the Skeptic's arguments are ad hominem, that is, they work from the premises accepted by his dogmatic rivals. Hence, he does not really embrace (?) the conclusion
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Hello Sextus

1) "epischonti de autô tychikôs parêkolouthêsen hê en toîs doxastoîs ataraxia": now
it becomes a little clearer.

Perhaps:

'And unperturbedness in matters of opinion followed as if by chance the man who had
suspended judgement.' (Or: 'attended as if by chance'.)

Sometimes you find 'ataraxia' translated by serenity, tranquillity, equa
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Hi MrP,

After posting the message today another possibility occured to me, taking into account the previous sentence of the paragraph, which I give you here:

"For, having begun to philosophize with the object of deciding between appearances and apprehending which are true and which false so as to become unperturbed, the Skeptic ended up in the disagreement of equal force; bein
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A] Perhaps: 'Even with the help of these interpretative keys...'
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B] '...the Skeptic ended up in the disagreement of equal force; being unable to decide it he suspended judgment.' There's something slightly awkward in the phrasing here; would the
original text support:

'...the S. at last found himself between two opinions of equal force; being unable to
decide, he suspended judgement'?
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C] I'm troubled by oîon tychikôs. If it's 'as if', isn't it almost the
opposite of the previous translation of tychikôs? 'As if by chance'
versus 'by chance'? Yet the context is the same.

But I do in any case withdraw my previous 'as if'. On the other hand, could we take
oîon as 'as it were'? 'By chance, as it were...' That has less of a sense
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Hi MrP

I thank you for your offer. I confess that it would be really helpful to have the whole paper proof-read, as I'm kind of stuck with my grammatical doubts. But I must note that it's about 18.000 words. So...

Anyway, if it's ok with you, let me know how we could do it.

Thanks again,

Sextus

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