Описание
Socrates is represented as doing, namely questioning others on their own
grounds rather than putting forward positive ideas of your own. In his teaching methods Arcesilaus went back to Socrates, refusing to hold forth himself
and always questioning others. The Sceptical4 (or ‘New’) Academy
flourished; its targets were contemporary ones just as those of Socrates had
been, and its best-known debates were with the Stoics, the most sophisticated
philosophical school holding positive and systematic doctrines. Arcesilaus’
most distinguished successor was Carneades (–/), a powerful arguer
who classified and systematized arguments and positions (On Moral Ends is
indebted to his classification of moral theories and to many of his arguments).
Like Socrates, the Sceptical Academics wrote nothing; one of Carneades’
pupils, Cleitomachus, recorded books of his arguments, but claimed to
know nothing of the positions, if any, that Carneades committed himself to.
The last head of the Sceptical Academy, Philo of Larisa, moved from
Athens to Rome about . Athens was undergoing violent political upheavals,
and changed sides, committing itself to the anti-Roman side in the war involving King Mithridates of Pontus. In the ruthless Roman general Lucius
Cornelius Sulla punished this betrayal by sacking and plundering Athens,
carrying off huge amounts of booty. Scholars generally agree that in this
general state of ruin the philosophical schools, including those of Plato and
Aristotle, came to an end as institutions. Their philosophy continued to be
taught, but the successions of heads going back to the founders were broken.5
Cicero thinks of the Sceptical Academy as a philosophy one can learn and
teach anywhere, not as an institution specific to Athens.
From an early age Cicero was interested in philosophy as well as the rhetorical skills necessary for success in Roman politics. Around he went to lectures in Rome by the Epicurean Phaedrus as well as the Academic Sceptic
Philo of Larisa. In he spent time in Athens (depicted at the start of book
) attending lectures by Antiochus of Ascalon (to whom we shall return). He
was taught by a Stoic, Diodotus, who lived in his household until he died in
. Cicero’s knowledge of philosophy is thorough, and based on having
worked through the arguments, not on superficial acquaintance with the
ideas.
From his encounter with Philo of Larisa onwards Cicero identified
himself as an Academic Sceptic; that is, to him philosophy consists essentially in the activity of seeking truth by discussing and arguing against the
positions of others, rather than by thinking up your own position to hold or
adopting someone else’s. In ethics, this involves familiarizing yourself with
Introduction
14 ‘Sceptical’ here retains the idea of philosophy as investigating or inquiring (the meaning of the
Greek verb skeptesthai) rather than a dogmatically negative denial of various positive claims,
as the modern notion of scepticism implies. 15 J. Glucker, Antiochus and the Late Academy (Hypomnemata ), Göttingen ; J. Lynch,
Aristotle’s School, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London . In book v, where Romans are living
in Athens and going to philosophy lectures, the Academy is deserted and Antiochus is teaching his new philosophy in a more recent building.
Детали
- Год издания
- 2001
- Format