Capítulo 19. Chapter XIX.—Of The Expression ‟Not More”
[1.19.188] This expression, then, we sometimes enunciate in the form I have stated but sometimes in the form ‟Nowise more.” For we do not, as some suppose, adopt the form ‟Not more” in specific inquiries and ‟Nowise more” in generic inquiries, but we enunciate both ‟Not more” and ‟Nowise more” indifferently, and we shall discuss them now as identical expressions. This expression, then, is elliptical. For just as when we say ‟a double” we are implicitly saying ‟a double hearth,”[93] and when we say ‟a square” we are implicitly saying ‟a square road- way,” so when we say ‟Not more” we are implicitly saying ‟Not this more than that, up than down.”
[1.19.189] Some of the Sceptics, however, in place of the ‟Not” adopt the form ”(For) what this more than that,” taking the ‟what” to denote, in this case, cause, so that the meaning is ‟For what reason this more than that?”[94] And it is a common practice to use questions instead of assertions, as for example—‟The bride of Zeus, what mortal knows her not?”[95] And also assertions in the place of questions; for instance —‟I am inquiring where Dion lives,” and ‟I ask you what reason there is for showing surprise at a poet.” And further, the use of ‟What” instead of ‟For what reason” is found in Menander,[96] ‟(For) what was I left behind?”
[1.19.190] And the expression ‟Not more this than that” indicates also our feeling, whereby we come to end in equipoise because of the equipollence of the opposed objects; and by ‟equipollence” we mean equality in respect of what seems probable to us, and by ‟opposed” we mean in general conflicting, and by ‟equipoise”[97] refusal of assent to either alternative.
[1.19.191] Then as to the formula ‟Nowise more,” even though it exhibits the character of a form of assent or of denial, we do not employ it in this way, but we take it in a loose and inexact sense, either in place of a question or in place of the phrase ‟I know not to which of these things I ought to assent, and to which I ought not.” For our aim is to indicate what appears to us; while as to the expression by which we indicate this we are indifferent. This point, too, should be noticed—that we utter the expression ‟Nowise more” not as positively affirming that it really is true and certain, but as stating in regard to it also what appears to us.