and
Natorp so ingeniously attempt to do, by claiming that the truth
of contradictory predicates which Aenesidemus accepted from
Heraclitus referred only to phenomena. The history of philosophy
gives us abundant proof of the impossibility of absolute
Scepticism, and Aenesidemus furnishes us with one example of
many of this impossibility, and of the dogmatism that must exist
in connection with all thought. In the case of Aenesidemus, who
evidently gave the best efforts of his life to establish the
Sceptical School, the dogmatism was probably unconscious. That
he remained to the end a Sceptic is shown by the fact that he
was known as such to posterity. Nowhere do we find a change of
basis referred to in regard to him, and Sextus, in refuting the
mistakes which he attributes to Aenesidemus, does it, as it
were, to point out something of which Aenesidemus had been
unconscious.

Let us consider here the second cause of Aenesidemus' Dogmatism,
the psychological effect upon himself of formulating Sceptical
beliefs. The work that he did for the Sceptical School was a
positive one. It occupied years of his life, and stamped itself
upon his mental development. In formulating Scepticism, and in
advocating it against the many enemies of the School, and amidst
all the excitement of the disruption from the Academy, and of
establishing a new School, it was inevitable that his mind
should take a dogmatic tendency. He remained a Sceptic as he had
always been, but must have grown dogmatic in his attitude
towards the Sceptical formulae, and was thus able to adopt some
of the teachings of Heraclitus, unconscious of their
inconsistency.

Where should we find a modern writer who is consistent in all
his statements? Could we read the works of Aenesidemus, we might
better understand the connection between the apparently
contradictory ideas in his teaching, but the inconsistencies in
statement would probably remain. It is necessary to remember the
position of Aenesidemus in breaking away from the Academy and in
founding a new school, the full significance of which he could
not foresee. There must necessarily be some crudeness in pioneer
work, and some failure to see the bearing of all its parts, and
a compiler like Sextus could point out the inconsistencies which
the two centuries since the time of Aenesidemus had made plain.
Aenesidemus was too positive a character to admit of absolute
Sceptical consistency. He was nevertheless the greate