Diogenes gives in part the same illustrations of this Trope, but in a much more condensed form.  The marked characteristic of this train of reasoning is the attempt to prove that abnormal conditions are also natural.  In referring at first to the opposing states of body and mind, which so change the character of sense-perception, Sextus classifies them according to the popular usage as [Greek:  kata physin] and [Greek:  para physin].  This distinction was an important one, even with Aristotle, and was especially developed by the Stoics[1] in a broader sense than referring merely to health and sickness.  The Stoics, however, considered only normal conditions as being according to nature.  Sextus, on the contrary, declares that abnormal states are also conditions according to nature,[2] and just as those who are in health are in a state that is natural to those who are in health, so also those not in health are in a state that is natural to those not in health, and in some respects according to nature.  Existence, then, and non-existence are not absolute, but relative, and the world of sleep as really exists for those who are asleep as the things that exist in waking exist, although they do not exist in sleep.[3] One mental representation, therefore, cannot be judged by another, which is also in a state of relation to existing physical and mental conditions.  Diogenes states this principle even more decidedly in his exposition of this Trope.  “The insane are not in a condition opposed to nature; why they more than we?  For we also see the sun as if it were stationary."[4] Furthermore, in different periods of life ideas differ.  Children are fond of balls and hoops, while those in their prime prefer other things, and the aged still others.[5] The wisdom contained in this Trope in reference to the relative value of the things most sought after is not original with Sextus, but is found in the more earnest ethical teachings of older writers.  Sextus does not, however, draw any moral conclusions from this reasoning, but only uses it as an argument for [Greek:  epoche].

    [1] Diog.  VII. 1, 86.

    [2] Hyp. I. 103.

    [3] Hyp. I. 104.

    [4] Diog.  IX. 11, 82.

    [5] Hyp. I. 106.

The Fifth Trope.  This Trope leaves the discussion of the dependence of the ideas upon the physical nature, and takes up the influence of the environment upon them.  It makes the difference in ideas depend upon the position, distance, and place of objects, thus taking apparently their real existence for granted.  Things change their form and shape according to the distance from which they are observed, and the position in which they stand.[1]