Kitap 2
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If you think that you know how to apply your general principles to particular cases, tell me on what you base this application.
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Upon its seeming so to me.
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But it does not seem so to another; and does not ne too think that he makes a right application?
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He does.
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Is it possible, then, that each of you should rightly apply your principles, on the very subjects about which your opinions conflict?
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It is not.
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Have you anything to show us, then, for this application, beyond the fact of its seeming so to you? And does a madman act any otherwise than seems to him right? Is this, then, a sufficient criterion for him too?
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It is not.
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Come, therefore, to some stronger ground than seeming.
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What is that?
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The beginning of philosophy is this: the being sensible of the disagreement of men with each other; an inquiry into the cause of this disagreement; and a disapprobation and distrust of what merely seems; a careful examination into what seems, whether it seem rightly; and the discovery of some rule which shall serve like a balance, for the determination of weights; like a square, for distinguishing straight and crooked. This is the beginning of philosophy.
11
Is it possible that all things which seem right to all persons are so? Can things contradictory be right? We say not all things; but all that seem so to us. And why more to you than to the Syrians or Egyptians; than to me, or to any other man? Not at all more.
