How did Aenesidemus’s 10 tropes challenge trust in sense perception?

Aenesidemus’s 10 tropes were formulated to challenge the reliability of sense perception and defend the Pyrrhonian principle of epoche, or the suspension of judgment. These tropes demonstrate that it is difficult to ascertain the truth of any judgment based on sensory information due to the inherent variability and differences in human and animal perceptions.12

The 10 tropes are categorized into three groups:
* The Perceiver: Four tropes focus on arguments arising from the nature of the individual who is perceiving.1
* The Perceived: Two tropes deal with the nature of the object being perceived.1
* The Relationship: Four tropes concern the interaction between the perceiver and the object.1

By highlighting that perceptions are subjective and vary significantly depending on the observer and the circumstances, Aenesidemus argued that we cannot definitively distinguish true knowledge from false impressions. This skepticism was intended to lead individuals away from the frustration of dogmatic claims toward ataraxia, or unperturbability, by encouraging them to live undogmatically according to appearances rather than asserting absolute knowledge.2