constitute the appearances of objects.[4] We see from this that
Sextus makes the only reality to consist in subjective
experience, but he does not follow this to its logical
conclusion, and doubt the existence of anything outside of mind.
He rather takes for granted that there is a something unknown
outside, about which the Sceptic can make no assertions.
Phenomena are the criteria according to which the Sceptic orders
his daily life, as he cannot be entirely inactive, and they
affect life in four different ways. They constitute the guidance
of nature, the impulse of feeling; they give rise to the
traditions of customs and laws, and make the teaching of the
arts important.[5] According to the tradition of laws and
customs, piety is a good in daily life, but it is not in itself
an abstract good. The Sceptic of Sextus' time also inculcated
the teaching of the arts, as indeed must be the case with
professing physicians, as most of the leading Sceptics were.
Sextus says, "We are not without energy in the arts which we
undertake."[6] This was a positive tendency which no philosophy,
however negative, could escape, and the Sceptic tried to avoid
inconsistency in this respect, by separating his philosophy from
his theory of life. His philosophy controlled his opinions, and
his life was governed by phenomena.

[1] _Hyp._ I. 19.

[2] _Hyp._ I. 19.

[3] _Hyp._ I. 22; Diog. IX. 11, 105.

[4] _Hyp._ I. 22.