280 l/1-18 to /l/-20
small matter we interrogate one witness, and whenever we are investigat-
ing a greater matter we interrogate several witnesses, and whenever we
are investigating an even more urgent matter we examine thoroughly
each of the witnesses on the basis of their consistency with the others;
so, similarly, the Carneadeans say that in trivial matters we employ only
the plausible presentation as criterion, in more important matters the
uncontroverted presentation, and in matters pertaining to our happiness
the thoroughly tested presentation. 185. Of course, they say that just as
in different matters they utilize a different [kind of] presentation [as
criterion], so in different circumstances they do not follow the same [kind
of] presentation. They claim that they attend to the plausible presentation
alone where circumstances do not afford an opportunity for accurate
consideration of the matter. 186. For example, someone is being pursued
by his enemies and, coming upon a ditch, he receives a presentation that
his enemies are lying in wait for him there too. Being seized by this
presentation as plausible, he turns and flees the ditch, following the
plausibility of the presentation before he could know accurately whether
there is an ambush of his enemies in that place or not. 187. But they
follow the plausible and thoroughly tested presentation in those cases in
which time allows for the judgement of what is occurring with care and
thorough testing.
For example, someone seeing a coiled rope in a dark room jumps over
it, thinking at first that it is a snake, but afterwards he turns around and
searches for the truth, and finding that it is motionless, his intellect is
already inclined to thinking that it is not a snake, 188. but still reckoning
that sometimes snakes do not move owing to winter frost, he prods the
coil with a stick, and having thus tested the presentation that occurs, he
assents to its being false that the body presented to him is a snake. And
again, as I said, seeing something clearly we assent to its being true when
our senses are thoroughly tested for their soundness, when we are looking
while awake and not asleep, and when there exist at once a clear atmo-
sphere, moderate distance, 189. and immobility of the object presented,
so that because of these factors the presentation is trustworthy, there
being sufficient time for a thorough testing of that which is observed
where the presentation occurs. The same sort of account pertains to the
uncontroverted presentation. They allow it whenever nothing has been
able to dislodge it, as was said in the case of Menelaus.
Cicero Academica 1.44-46 [III-19]
44 .... It was with Zeno [the Stoic], we gather, that Arcesilaus started
his whole quarrel. This was not, so it seems to me, because of stubbornness