66–68
LYCINUS
Don’t ask me, my good sir. Again, ask the argument. Perhaps it would answer you that we cannot as yet discover the truth, as long as it is uncertain whether truth is one of the things they say it is.
HERMOTIMUS
From what you say we shall never find it or be philosophers. We shall have to give up philosophy and live a layman’s life. At least it follows from what you say that philosophy for a human being is impossible and unattainable. For you say that whoever is going to practise philosophy must first choose the best philosophy, and the choice would be correct in your view only if the truest were chosen after going through the whole field. Then you calculated the number of years required for each and went beyond all bounds, stretching it to cover several generations, so that the search for truth exceeded any man’s lifetime. Finally you show that even this is not beyond doubt when you say it is not certain whether any of the old philosophers found the truth or not.
LYCINUS
Could you, Hermotimus, guarantee on oath that they have found it?
HERMOTIMUS
No, I could not.
LYCINUS
Yet how many other things have I purposely omitted which call for long examination!
HERMOTIMUS
What sort of things?
LYCINUS
Don’t you hear some of the Stoics or Epicureans or Platonists say that, while some of them know all the doctrines, others do not, although in other respects they are quite reliable?
LYCINUS
Then do you not think it a very laborious business to separate and differentiate those who know from those who do not know but say they know?
