SCEPTICISM AND THE NEW ACADEMY.
This subjective direction already noticed was carried out to its
farthest extent by the Sceptics, who broke down completely the bridge
between subject and object, denying all objective truth, knowledge and
science, and wholly withdrawing the philosopher from every thing but
himself and his own subjective estimates. In this direction we may
distinguish between the old Scepticism, the new Academy, and the later
Scepticism.
1. THE OLD SCEPTICISM.—_Pyrrho_ of Elis, who was perhaps a cotemporary
of Aristotle, was the head of the old Sceptics. He left no writings
behind him, and we are dependent for a knowledge of his opinions upon
his scholar and follower, Timon of Phlius. The tendency of these
sceptical philosophers, like that of the Stoics and Epicureans, was a
practical one, for philosophy, said they, ought to lead us to happiness.
But in order to live happily we must know how things are, and,
therefore, in what kind of a relation we stand to them. The first of
these questions the Sceptics answered by attempting to show that all
things, without exception, are indifferent as to truth and falsehood,
uncertain, and in nowise subject to man’s judgment. Neither our senses
nor our opinions concerning any thing teach us any truth; to every
precept and to every position a contrary may be advanced, and hence the
contradictory views of men, and especially of the philosophies of the
schools respecting one and the same thing. All objective knowledge and
science being thus impossible, the true relation of the philosopher to
things consists in the entire suspension of judgment, and the
withholding of every positive assertion. In order to avoid every thing
like a positive assertion, the Sceptics had recourse to a variety of
artifices, and availed themselves of doubtful modes of expression, such
as _it is possible_; _it may be so_; _perhaps_; _I assert
nothing_,—cautiously subjoining to this last—_not even that I assert
nothing_. By this suspension of judgment the Sceptics thought they could
attain their practical end, happiness; for the abstinence from all
positive opinion is followed by a freedom from all mental disturbance,
as a substance is by a shadow. He who has embraced Scepticism lives
thenceforward tranquilly, without inquietude, without agitation, with an
equable state of mind, and, in fact, divested of his humanity. Pyrrho is
said to have originated the doctrine which lies at the basis of
sceptical apathy, that no difference exists between sickness and health,
or between life and death. The Sceptics, for the most part, derived the
material for their views from the previous investigations in the
dogmatic schools. But the grounds on which they rested were far from
being profound, and were for the most part either dialectic errors which
could easily be refuted, or mere subtleties. The use of the following
ten tropes is ascribed to the old Sceptics, though these were perhaps
not definitely brought out by either Pyrrho or Timon, but were probably
first collected by Ænesidemus, soon after the time of Cicero. The
withholding of all decisive judgment may rest; (1) upon the distinction
generally existing between individual living objects; (2) upon the
difference among men; (3) the different functions of the organs of
sense; (4) the circumstances under which objects appear; (5) the
relative positions, intervals, and places; (6) intermixtures; (7) the
quantities and modifications of the objects we perceive; (8) relations;
(9) the frequent or rare occurrence; (10) the different ways of life,
the varieties of customs and laws, the mythical representations and
dogmatic opinions of men.
2. THE NEW ACADEMY.—Scepticism, in its conflict with the Stoics, as it
appeared in the Platonic school established by _Arcesilaus_ (316-241),
has a far greater significance than belongs to the performances of the
Pyrrhonists. In this school Scepticism sought its support by its great
respect for the writings and its transmission of the oral teachings of
Plato. Arcesilaus could neither have assumed nor maintained the chair of
instruction in the Academy, had he not carefully cherished and imparted
to his disciples the impression that his own view, respecting the
withholding of a decisive judgment, coincided essentially with that of
Socrates and of Plato, and if he had not also taught that he only
restored the genuine and original significance of Platonism, when he set
aside the dogmatic method of teaching. An immediate incitement to the
efforts of Arcesilaus is found in his opposition to the rigid dogmatic
system which had lately arisen in the Porch, and which claimed to be in
every respect an improvement upon Platonism. Hence, as Cicero remarks,
Arcesilaus directed all his sceptical and polemic attacks against Zeno,
the founder of Stoicism. He granted with his opponent that no
representation should form a part of undoubted knowledge, if it could
possibly have arisen through any other object than that from which it
actually sprung, but he would not admit that there might be a notion
which expressed so truly and accurately its own object, that it could
not have arisen from any other. Accordingly, Arcesilaus denied the
existence of a criterion which could certify to us the truth of our
knowledge. If there be any truth in our affirmations, said he, we cannot
be certain of it. In this sense he taught that one can know nothing, not
even that he does know nothing. But in moral matters, in choosing the
good and rejecting the evil, he taught that we should follow that which
is probable.
Of the subsequent leaders in the new Academy, _Carneades_ (214-129)
alone need here be mentioned, whose whole philosophy, however, consists
almost exclusively in a polemic against Stoicism and in the attempt to
set up a criterion of truth. His positive performance is the attempt to
bring out a philosophical theory of probabilities. The later
Academicians fell back to an eclectic dogmaticism.
3. THE LATER SCEPTICISM.—Once more we meet with a peculiar Scepticism at
the time when Grecian philosophy had wholly fallen to decay. To this
time belong _Ænesidemus_, who probably—though this cannot be affirmed
with certainty—lived but a little after Cicero; _Agrippa_, whose date is
also uncertain, though subsequent to Ænesidemus, and _Sextus
Empiricus_—_i. e._ a Grecian physician of the empiric sect, who probably
flourished in the first half of the third century of the Christian era.
These are the most significant names. Of these the last has the greatest
interest for us, from two writings which he left behind him (the
hypotyposes of Pyrrho in three books, and a treatise against the
mathematicians in nine books), which are sources of much historical
information. In these he has profusely collected every thing which the
Scepticism of the ancients knew how to advance against the certainty of
knowledge.