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CARNEADES (214–129 B.C.)
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See also:CARNEADES (214–129 B.C.) , See also:Greek philosopher, founder of the Third or New See also:Academy, was See also:born at See also:Cyrene. Little is known of his See also:life. He learned dialectics under See also:Diogenes the Stoic, and under Hegesinus,the third See also:leader of the Academy in descent from See also:Arcesilaus. The See also:chief See also:objects of his study, however, were the See also:works of See also:Chrysippus, opposition to whose views is the mainspring of his See also:philosophy. " If Chrysippus had not been," he is reported to have said, " I had not been either." In 155, together with Diogenes the Stoic and See also:Critolaus the Peripatetic, he was sent on an See also:embassy to See also:Rome to justify certain depredations committed by the Athenians in the territory of See also:Oropus. On this occasion he delivered two speeches on successive days, one in favour of See also:justice, the other against it. His powerful reasoning excited among the See also:Roman youth an See also:enthusiasm for philosophical speculations, and the See also:elder See also:Cato insisted on Carneades and his companions being dismissed from the See also:city. Carneades, practically a 5th-See also:century sophist, is the most important of the See also:ancient sceptics. Negatively, his philosophy is a polemic against the Stoic theory of knowledge in all its aspects. All our sensations are relative, and acquaint us, not with things as they are, but only with the impressions that things produce upon us. Experience, he says, clearly shows that there is no true impression. There is no notion that may not deceive us; it is impossible to distinguish between false and true impressions; therefore the Stoic davravia KaraXrla-n0rl (see See also:STOICS) must be given up. There is no criterion of truth. Carneades also assailed Stoic See also:theology and physics. In See also:answer to the See also:doctrine of final cause, of See also:design in nature, he points to those things which cause destruction and danger to See also:man, to the evil committed by men endowed with See also:reason, to the miserable See also:condition of humanity, and to the misfortunes that assail the See also:good man. There is, he concludes, no See also:evidence for the doctrine of a divine superintending See also:providence. Even if there were orderly connexion of parts in the universe, this may have resulted quite naturally. No See also:proof can be advanced to show that this See also:world is anything but the product of natural forces. Carneades further attacked the very See also:idea of See also:God. He points out the contra-diction between the attributes of infinity and individuality. Like See also:Aristotle, he insists that virtue, being relative, cannot be ascribed to God. Not even intelligence can be an attribute of the divine Being. Nor can he be conceived of as corporeal or incorporeal. If corporeal, he must be See also:simple or See also:compound; if a simple and elementary substance, he is incapable of life and thought; if compound, he contains in himself the elements of See also:dissolution. If incorporeal, he can neither See also:act nor feel. In fact, nothing whatever can be asserted with certainty in regard to God. The See also:general See also:line of See also:argument followed by Carneades anticipates much in See also:modern thought. The See also:positive See also:side of his teaching resembles in all essentials that of Arcesilaus (q.v.). Knowledge being impossible, a See also:wise man should practise roxi (suspension of See also:judgment). He will not even be sure that he can be sure of nothing. Ideas or notions are never true, but only probable; nevertheless, there are degrees of See also:probability, and hence degrees of belief, leading to See also:action. According to Carneades, an impression may be probable in itself; probable and uncontradicted (aaepLQaavros, lit. " not pulled aside," not distracted by synchronous sensations, but shown to be in See also:harmony with them) when compared with others; probable, uncontradicted, and thoroughly investigated and See also:con-firmed. In the first degree there is a strong persuasion of the propriety of the impression made; the second and third degrees are produced by comparisons of the impression with others associated with it, and an See also:analysis of itself. His views on the summum bonum are not clearly known even to his See also:disciple and successor See also:Clitomachus. He seems to have held that virtue consisted in the direction of activity towards the See also:satisfaction of the natural impulses. Carneades See also:left no written works; his opinions seem to have been systematized by Clitomachus. See A. Geffers, De Arcesilae Successoribus (1845) ; C. Gouraud, De Carneadis Vita et Placitis (1848); V. Brochard, See also:Les Sceptiques grecs (1887); C. Martha, " Le Philosophe Carneade b. Rome," in Revue See also:des deux mondes, See also:xxix. (1878), and the histories of philosophy; also ACADEMY, GREEK. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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