Socrates' tireless questioning and his persistent insistence that he does not instruct but rather seeks instruction. The nature, or essence, of things is elusive to human reason and cannot be known. Those who insist on certainty, Montaigne says, consider Sebonde's approach to truth "weake and lame." But they know nothing of certainty except that they have an opinion about what is certain, "and yet will take upon them to governe the world and know all."
Sextus Empiricus does not have Montaigne's intellectual perspective or the evidence of Christian warfare in Europe to enrich his view of the limits of human reason. However, as a fairly early Christian he would have been aware of the doctrinal warfare going on in the emerging Church. Whereas Montaigne deplores the multiple doctrinal and physical wars of religion and marshals anecdote after anecdote to demonstrate his views, Sextus Empiricus mounts a critique of competitive philosophical argumentation much in the manner of classical philosophy. Accordingly, he distinguishes the dogmatists, who insist that truth is attainable, citing Aristotle; the academics, who declare that truth cannot be found; and the skeptics, who "again go on inqu
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