274 ///-14 to ///-18
Cicero Academica 2.139 [III-14]
... [perhaps] I should follow the opinion of Calliphon, whose view
Carneades used to argue for so assiduously that he even seemed to approve
of it, though Clitomachus used to claim that he never could understand
what Carneades really believed ...
Cicero Academica 2.148 [III-15]
[Catulus speaks] ... "I return to the view held by my father, who
said that it was also Carneades' view: although I hold that nothing can
be perceived, still I think that the wise man will assent to something
which is not perceived, i.e., that he will hold a [mere] opinion; but that
he will also understand that he is indeed opining and knows that there
is nothing which can be grasped and perceived. And that is why, although
I disapprove of their epoche on all matters, I give strong assent to the
other view, viz. that there is nothing which can be perceived."
Cicero On Goals 2.2 [III-16]
But we know that the man I have mentioned [Gorgias] and the other
sophists were mocked by Socrates, as we gather from Plato. For he
[Socrates] used to draw out the opinions of his interlocutors by examina-
tion and questioning, in order that he might say what he thought in
response to their answers. This method was not preserved by his [immedi-
ate] successors, but Arcesilaus revived it and required that those who
wished to hear him not ask for [his opinion], but should themselves say
what they thought; and when they had done so, he maintained the
contrary position. And his interlocutors defended their own views to the
best of their abilities; with other philosophers, by contrast, someone who
asks a question must remain silent. And that is what happens today, even
in the Academy ....
Cicero On Goals 5.10 [III-17]
The same school [the early Peripatetics] handed down rules not just
for dialectic but also for rhetoric. Their founder, Aristotle, established
the exercise of arguing on both sides of each issue, not, however, like
Arcesilaus, arguing against every [thesis] all the time, but just in order
to set forth in every case all that could be said on either side of the issue.
Sextus M 7.150-189 [III-18]
- Arcesilaus and his followers in the Academy did not in the proper
sense define a criterion, whereas those who seem to have defined one