Thinker · TH-0096
Carneades
Carneades of Cyrene led Plato's Academy in Athens during its skeptical phase and was famed as a debater; on an embassy to Rome in…
Καρνεάδης
Also known as Carneades of Cyrene
c. 214 – 129 BCE · Cyrene; Athens; Rome (embassy of 155 BCE)
Traditions: Greek & Roman
Schools: Skepticism (Pyrrhonian & Academic)
Carneades of Cyrene led Plato's Academy in Athens during its skeptical phase and was famed as a debater; on an embassy to Rome in 155 BCE he is reported to have argued for justice one day and against it the next. He wrote nothing, and his views come down through his pupil Clitomachus as reported by Cicero and Sextus Empiricus. Against Stoic critics he held that one can act on impressions graded by their persuasiveness without claiming certain knowledge.
Key ideas
- No impression carries a mark that guarantees its truth, so the Stoic criterion of truth fails.
- One may act on 'persuasive' impressions, especially those that are consistent with others and have been tested.
- Arguing both sides of a question is a method for exposing dogmatic claims.
- He criticised Stoic theology and doctrines of fate.
Major works
- Wrote nothing; reported in Cicero, Academica (45 BCE)
- Reported in Cicero, De natura deorum and De fato
- Reported in Sextus Empiricus, Against the Logicians
In the conversation
- Question What is the actual difference between Pyrrhonian and Academic sceptics?
- Discussion Carneades at three in the morning: how much certainty does a decision need?
In the Journal
On the map
The questions in The Coordinates of Thought where Carneades takes a place.
- 2.4 Skepticism How do you know you are not being deceived about everything?