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Arcesilaus or Arcesilas.1. The name of many of the ruling dynasty of Cyrene in North Africa, which ruled from the foundation of the colony (c.630 BC) for some 200 years.

2. Of Pitanē in Aeolis, see ACADEMY.

 
 

(c. 316-242 BC) The founder of the middle Academy of Athens, and the first to break with the older Platonic cosmologies in favour of scepticism. The running battle between the Academy and the Stoics started with his attack on the basis of Stoical reason in phantasia katalēptikē (‘apprehensive perceptions’). His own attempt to avoid the paralysis that, according to the Stoic counter-attack, followed upon sceptical suspension of judgement, was to rely upon some common-sensical, but probably undefended, notion of that which is eulogon or reasonable. See also Carneades.

 
(ärsĕs'ĭlā'əs) , c.316–c.241 B.C., Greek philosopher of Pitane in Aeolis. He was the principal figure of the Middle Academy. Despite his position in the Academy, his teachings diverged from Platonic doctrine. By emphasizing the doubt expressed by Socrates as to the possibility of gaining knowledge, he took a position comparable to that of the Skeptics (see skepticism). He argued that knowledge and opinion could not be distinguished from each other, so that what anyone claims to know may be more or less probable but not certain. In denying the possibility of certainty he was a major opponent of the Stoics (see Stoicism). Arcesilaus indirectly influenced Carneades and his school.

Bibliography

See A. A. Long, The Hellenistic Philosophers (2 vol. 1987).

 
Wikipedia: Arcesilaus
Arcesilaus
Born c.316
Pitane, Aeolis, Greece
Died c.241
Athens, Greece

Arcesilaus (Ἀρκεσίλαος) (ca. 316-ca. 241 BC) was a Greek philosopher and founder of the New, or Middle, Academy—the sceptical phase.

Born in Pitane in Aeolis, he was trained by Autolycus the mathematician and later at Athens by Theophrastus and Crantor, by whom he was led to join the Academy. He subsequently became intimate with Polemon and Crates, whom he succeeded as head of the school (σχολάρχης).

Diogenes Laërtius says that, similarly to his successor Lacydes, he died of excessive drinking, but the testimony of others (e.g. Cleanthes) and his own precepts discredit the story, and he is known to have been much respected by the Athenians. His doctrines, which must be gathered from the writings of others (Cicero, Academica i.12, iv.24; De Oratorio iii.18; Diogenes Laërtius iv.28; Adv. Math. vii.150, Pyrrh. Hyp. i.233; Sextus Empiricus Against the Logicians), present an attack on the Stoic notion of φαντασία καταληπτική (manifest presentation, or verifiable sense-impression) as self-warranting criterion of truth and are based on the sceptical element latent in the later writings of Plato.

He held that strength of intellectual conviction cannot be regarded as valid, as much as it is characteristic equally of contradictory convictions. The uncertainty of sensible data applies equally to the conclusions of reason, and therefore man must be content with probability which is sufficient as a practical guide. "We know nothing, not even our ignorance"; therefore the wise man will have to be content with an agnostic attitude. He made use of the Socratic method of instruction and left no writings. His arguments were marked by incisive humour and fertility of ideas.

See R. Brodeisen, De Arcesila philosopizo (1821); Aug. Geffers, Arcesila (1842); Ritter and Preller, Hist. philos. graec. (1898).

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Classical Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Copyright © 1993, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
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