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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Outlines of Pyrrhonism' and 'Folk Psychology'

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11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 2. Common Sense Certainty

1889	If an argument has an absurd conclusion, we should not assent to the absurdity, but avoid the absurd argument [Sext.Empiricus]
	Full Idea: If an argument leads to confessedly absurd conclusions, we should not assent to the absurdity just because of the argument, but avoid the argument because of the absurdity.
	From: Sextus Empiricus (Outlines of Pyrrhonism [c.180], II.252)
	A reaction: cf. G.E.Moore. Denying that you have a hand seems to be an absurdity, but I'm not sure if I can give a criterion for absurdity in such a case. One person's modus ponens is another person's modus tollens.