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School · 315 BCE–43 BCE

Academic skepticism

In the Hellenistic Academy, skeptical arguments challenged Stoic criteria of truth while exploring whether what is persuasive or probable can guide action without knowledge.

Shared questions

  • Can action be reasonable without a criterion that guarantees knowledge or truth?

Internal disagreements

  • Whether Academic suspension of assent excludes all belief or licenses graded practical approval.

Key texts

  • Academica · 45 BCE — Cicero's Latin dialogue is the main surviving source for the arguments of Arcesilaus and Carneades, neither of whom left writings.

Scholarly notes

Reading a school through its opponents and admirers · resolved

Neither Arcesilaus nor Carneades left writings, so the school is known through Cicero's Latin dialogues and through Stoic reports of the arguments made against them; what survives is a case put by others.