   Sextus imagines someone arguing for the philosophical position that there is a ‘standard’ (more on that below) on the basis of the fact that the Stoics say there is one; the Skeptic would counter that one could equally well argue that there is no standard, since Xeniades and Xenophanes say there isn’t one. The mode of dispute codifies a tactic in the Skeptic’s ongoing fight with dogmatists: it is a weapon to be deployed when the dogmatist employs an argument from authority. (For a different view on what the mode of dispute is, see Barnes 1990a: ch. 1.)