Stoic Logic and the Text of Sextus Empiricus Benson Mates The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 70, No. 3. (1949), pp. 290-298. Stable URL hitp:/flinks.jstor-org/siisici=0002-9475% 281949%2970%3A3%3C200%3 ASLATTOW3E2.0,CO%3B2-9 ‘The American Journal of Philology is currently published by The Johns Hopkins University Press. Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at hup:/www,jstororglabout/terms.hml. ISTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at hutp:/wwwjstor.org/joumals/jhup.himl. ch copy of any part of'a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the sereen or printed page of such transmission, ISTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support @ jstor.org. hupulwww jstor.org/ Mon Apr 24 07:46:49 2006STOIC LOGIC AND THE TEXT OF SEXTUS EMPIRICUS. The text of Sextus Bmpiricus contains a number of corrupt places which can easily be corrected by reference to a few of the technical terms and elementary concepts of Stoic logic.’ Tt is the aim of the present paper to prove this assertion with respect fo a certain class of cases and, in so doing, to show that any fature editor of Sextus ought to have a clear understanding of Stoie logic. In each of the cases to be considered, the unsound passage occurs in a context in which Sextus states or refers to a certain very important principle of Stoic logic. As will appear below, a comprehension of this principle is sufficient to enable one to reconstruct the text with practical certainty, and consequently ‘we shall proceed at once to give an explanatory account of it. ‘The principle is as follows: an argument is valid if and only if, the conditional whose antecedent is the conjunction of the prem= ses and whose consequent is the conclusion is logically (i.e, necessarily) true All of the technical terms occurring in the above statement will now be defined, and examples will be adduced to illustrate their meaning. According to the Stoics, propositions (df.cuara)* may be 1 the best published account of Stole logic is that of J. Lukaslewles, “Zur Geschichte der Aussagentogik,” Erkenntnis, V (1985), pp. 111-31 * This principle is deseribed and referred to in many different places in the writings of Sextus. One of the beat is Ade. Math., VIII, 416. ‘See also ibid, 420; Hyp. Pyrrhy WL, 118, 137 ff "In tranclating Stole technical terminology into English T have rendered each term by the corresponding English technical term from the language of moder logic. Sometimes the resulte of this method fre not at all unusual (for instance, ” is translated by “‘conneetive”), but sometimes the reader may feel that it leads to unhappy’ resulta. ‘Thus, T have translated “ dmiotr doa” a “atomle "oly dphoiv dina” as molecular proposition” This procedure is justified, however, by the fact that in all casea we possess Stoic definitions which agree ezactly with thoes of the corresponding modern terms. Furthermore, it isa startling fact that the Stofes were ent in the use of their technical terms and x0 sophisticated 290STOIC LOGIC AND TEXT OF SEXTUS EMPIRICUS. 291 divided into two classes: those that are atomic (Ad), and those that are molecular (oly drAa). An atomic proposition is one which is built up out of subject (wrdes) and predicate (xarqys- pma), without the help of a logical connective (oteBeopos). A molecular proposition, on the other hand, consists either of two ‘occurrences of single proposition or of different propositions and is always recognizable by the presence in it of one or more logical connectives.‘ These logical connectives are “and” (ead), “or” (5), “if” (ct or dvep), “since” (éret), and the like. Examples of atomic sentences’ are “it is day,” “it is light,” “Socrates is walking,” “somebody is walking.” Examples of molecular propositions are “if it is day, it is light,” “it is day and itis light,” “ Socrates is walking or Socrates is sitting,” if it is day and itis light, Tam conversing,” “if it is day, itis day,” and s0 forth. ‘The molecular propositions, in turn, are classified on the basis ‘of the connectives they contain at the “main break.” ‘Thus, there is the conditional (awmuuévor), the conjunction (oypre: ‘rheynévoy oF owindon}), and the disjunction (Buferyuévey), accord ing as the main connective is if,” “ and,” or “or,” respective (There are several other types, but since only “ conditional ” and “conjunction” oceur in the principle to be explained, we shall confine our attention to them.) In accordance with what we have said, then, the Stoics define a conditional (cumuuvor) as a molecular proposition compounded by means of the connective “if”; for example, “if it is day, it is day,” or “if it is day, it is light." In a similar fashion, a conjunction (avpremdeypivoy oF from the point of view of logic, that when the logieal fragments translated into Bnglish in the manner described, the results read like extracts from a text in modern loge. ‘Sextus, Adv. Math, VIII, 9811; Diog. L, VIL, 64, 68; Galen, Institutio Logica (Kalbitelach), 12, 8; se also 8. V.¥,, 11, 182. * Diog. Is, VIL, $1, 58, 71, 72; Sextus, Adv. Math, VIIL, 108 * Diog. L, VIE, 111; 8. VF, 1, 182. "Sextus, op. cit, 1084f-; Diog. L., VIE, 72, There ls no doubt that in Stole logie the term“ wn’ aliays meant 4 proposition of “if... then...” form, ice, « conditional. Tt was never used to afer to any sort of argument, syllogistic or otherwise, derpite Bury’ assertion that the term evrmiudsor (“combination ") mostly means the “hypothetical, oF major, premisa of a hypothetical spllogiom, but some- times the whole syllogism” (Loeb translation, I, p, 246, m2)