Academic Scepticism 269
of? He says, "it is in order that our audience should be guided by reason
and not by authority." ...Cicero Academica 2.66-67 [III-9]
66 .... When presentations strike my mind or senses forcefully, I
accept them and sometimes I even assent to them-not that I perceive
them, for I do not think that anything can be perceived. I am not wise,
and so I yield to presentations and cannot resist them; but Arcesilaus
agrees with Zeno [the Stoic] and holds that the wise man's chief strength
is that he is careful not to be tricked and sees to it that he is not
deceived; for nothing is more alien to the conception which we have of
the seriousness of a wise man than error, frivolity or rashness. What shall
I say then of the wise man's steadfastness? Even you, Lucullus, concede
that he never holds a [mere] opinion. And since you approve of this
thesis ... consider first the force of this argument: 67. If a wise man
ever assents to anything, then he will sometimes hold [mere] opinions;
but he will never hold [mere] opinions; therefore he will assent to nothing.
Arcesilaus approved of this argument, for he argued in support of the
first and second premisses. Carneades sometimes conceded the second
premiss, i.e., that the wise man sometimes assents; hence it followed that
the wise man holds [mere] opinions. You want to avoid this, and rightly
so in my view. But the first premiss, that the wise man will have [mere]
opinions if he gives assent, is held to be false by the Stoics and their
supporter Antiochus, on the grounds that he [the wise man] can distin-
guish falsehoods from truths and what is not perceptible from what
is perceptible.Cicero Academica 2.76-78 [III-10]
76 .... From what follows one can understand that Arcesilaus did not
fight with Zeno for the sake of quarrelling but really wanted to discover
the truth. 77. None of his predecessors ever formally claimed or even
merely mentioned that it was possible for a man to hold no opinions,
while it was not only possible but even necessary for a wise man to do
so. Arcesilaus thought that this view was true, and respectable and worthy
of a wise man. Perhaps he asked Zeno what would happen if [a] the wise
man could not perceive anything, and [b] it was not fitting for the wise
man to hold a [mere] opinion. I think that Zeno would have said that
the wise man would indeed avoid forming an opinion because there
was something which could be perceived. So what would this be? A