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	Arcesilaus
		In either case, Arcesilaus argued that, whether the nature of the objects or of our minds were at fault, it was always possible to have a false impression with exactly the same phenomenal content as a true impression [a] that also met condition [b].
		Arcesilaus' argument for a ‘practical criterion’ for action is a defence of the possibility of suspending assent universally given in response to two Stoic objections.
		The suggestion, then, is that Arcesilaus' beliefs in the importance of knowledge and the inadequacy of mere opinion are explicitly non-rational, in the sense that he is not persuaded that they are warranted by a rational argument or theory, or even by the extensive argument he has devoted his life to.
	plato.stanford.edu /entries/arcesilaus (5365 words)

	Ancient Greek Skepticism [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
		Arcesilaus had (selectively) derived the lesson from Plato's dialogues that nothing can be known with certainty, either by the senses or by the mind (de Oratore 3.67, on the topic of Plato and Socrates as proto-skeptics, see Annas [1992], Shields [1994] and Woodruff [1986]).
		Arcesilaus presented this criterion in response to the Stoic objection that if we were to suspend judgment regarding everything, then we would not be able to continue to engage in day to day activities.
		On this view, Arcesilaus is simply showing the Stoics both that their account of knowledge is not necessary for virtue, and that they nonetheless already have a perfectly acceptable epistemic substitute, to eulogon (see Striker [1980/1996]).
	www.utm.edu /research/iep/s/skepanci.htm (11197 words)

	A History of Western Philosophy 1.13
		Arcesilaus was born at Pitane in Aeolia about 315 B.C. He studied mathematics in his native city and then came to Athens with the intention of studying rhetoric.
		Arcesilaus shies away from proposing anything like a positive doctrine, and is shrewd enough to agree that he cannot even be certain that he can be certain of nothing.
		But if Arcesilaus is not to be thought of as teaching the positive philosophical doctrines of Plato, whose successor after all he was, it is argued that he did preserve and pass on to others the method of dialectics and that he doubtless used the dialogues themselves for this purpose.
	www.nd.edu /Departments/Maritain/etext/hwp113.htm (5907 words)

	Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, page 259 (v. 1) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		It was on the death of Grantor that Arcesilaus succeeded to the chair of the Academy, in the history of which he makes so important an era.
		5, 6.) Arcesilaus is also said to have restored the Socratic method of teaching in dialogues; although it is probable that he did not confine himself strictly to the erotetic method, perhaps the supposed identity of his doctrines with those of Plato may have originated in the 'outward form in which they were conveyed.
		Slight as the difference may appear between the speculative statements of the two schools, a comparison of the lives of their founders and their respective successors leads us to the conclusion, that a practical moderation was the characteristic of the New Academy, to which the Sceptics were wholly strangers.
	ancientlibrary.com /smith-bio/0268.html (908 words)

	Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2005.07.38
		Arcesilaus suspends assent not because he has previously decided that knowledge is impossible and that assent must always be withheld.
		This is not a philosophical doctrine for Arcesilaus, in that he will never announce it as his opinion, and he does not hold it in a way that places a burden on him to defend it with arguments of his own or with rebuttals against its denial by anyone.
		Arcesilaus holds that his acts of suspension are morally good acts since they are expressions of his commitment and obedience to reason.
	ccat.sas.upenn.edu /bmcr/2005/2005-07-38.html (3683 words)

	Arcesilaus [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		Arcesilaus was the sixth head of Plato's academy, who turned the academy in a skeptical direction.
		Arcesilaus, however, turned away from such system-building and instead spent his energies in attacking the arguments of others.
		For any sense-impression, Arcesilaus said, even if it is accurate, it is always possible in principle that there be a qualitatively indistinguishable sense-impression that is inaccurate, and the wise person would thus have no way of telling which sense-impressions are accurate andwhich ones are not.
	www.iep.utm.edu /a/arcesil.htm (535 words)

	Arcesilaus [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		Arcesilaus goes beyond this, saying that he knows nothing, not even that that he knows nothing.
		Arcesilaus, however, said that we can act on the basis the eulogon-- the 'reasonable.' The eulogon is not a criterion of knowledge, since what is eulogon can be mistaken, but it can be a basis of action.
		Arcesilaus left no writings of his own, so we must rely on second and third-hand reports in order to reconstruct his views.
	www.utm.edu /research/iep/a/arcesil.htm (535 words)

	Arcesilaus (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		Cicero on his academic predecessors: the fallibilism of Arcesilaus and Carneades.
		The skeptics of Plato's Academy, Arcesilaus and Carneades, claimed the legacy of...
		Schofield emphasizes the Platonic/Socratic antecedents of Arcesilaus (327-30), rejecting a purely ad homines anti-Stoic reading, and shows that Carneades attacked the Epicureans as well as the...
	hallencyclopedia.com /Arcesilaus (517 words)

	Illusive Mind: Suspending Belief
		Arcesilaus was the sixth head of Plato’s academy and was a skepticist.
		Arcesilaus goes further by saying not that he knows that he knows nothing because if he knows nothing he knows nothing at all.
		Arcesilaus often refuted the arguments of the Stoics by providing reasonable explanations for both sides, establishing aporia (perhaps in a Derridian fashion) and thus suggesting that the only wise action was epoche, the suspension of belief or mental commitment to either or any view, i.e.
	illusivemind.blogspot.com /2005/01/suspending-belief.html (1420 words)

	Oxford Scholarship Online: The Heirs of Plato
		Arcesilaus of Pitane succeeded Crates as head of the Academy in the mid-270s, and is credited with instigating the era of the 'sceptical' Academy.
		Faced with the challenge of Zeno of Citium's nascent Stoicism, which in many ways was a logical development and intellectual heir of Platonism, Arcesilaus revived the dialectic of Plato's 'Socratic' dialogues and attacked the Stoic belief in the certainty of sense perception.
		Arcesilaus thus reinvigorated the sceptical and aporetic strand of his Socratic-Platonic heritage, as represented in a work like the Theaetetus, while eschewing the Timaeus-inspired cosmological speculation that had characterized the preceding 70 years.
	www.oxfordscholarship.com /oso/public/content/philosophy/0198237669/acprof-0198237669-chapter-6.html (199 words)

	Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2003.08.19
		Not all Hellenistic Academics were sceptics, but the majority were, and all of them after Arcesilaus were deeply concerned with the questions of whether (or to what extent) to suspend judgment, and whether (or to what extent) human beings are capable of katalêpsis, of the certain grasp of an object.
		Three main possibilities are to defend Socrates as a sceptical precursor of Arcesilaus (as the New Academics themselves did); to attack Socrates as a sceptical precursor of Arcesilaus (as the Epicureans did); or to defend Socrates by disassociating him from Arcesilaus and reinterpreting him as a dogmatist (as the Stoics did, and then also Antiochus).
		Arcesilaus seems to have been prominent here, and Opsomer thinks Colotes is attacking primarily Arcesilaus, and other philosophers only insofar as the Academics had cited them as authorities or precursors (I would have guessed that Colotes is just attacking all possible alternatives to Epicurus and using Arcesilaus as a reductio ad absurdum of everyone else).
	ccat.sas.upenn.edu /bmcr/2003/2003-08-19.html (4445 words)

	Carneades
		From Arcesilaus' time on, the examination of the theories of other schools, chiefly the Stoa's, was the Academy's principal occupation, and this practice reached its peak under Carneades.
		The lesson he drew from the difficulties that he had uncovered in the Stoic position among others, however, was that he and his opponents were not in a position to give their assent with confidence.
		The other view, which favors withholding assent, appealed to those who were attracted, as Zeno and Arcesilaus had been, to the ideal of certain knowledge and were struck by the force of what is said on both sides of the epistemological debate between the Academy and the Stoa.
	www.seop.leeds.ac.uk /archives/win2004/entries/carneades (4156 words)

	Scepticism - Lecture 4
		Though in these latter instances, it seems likely that the writers attributing such a stance to Arcesilaus are being misled by his use of ad hominem arguments intended to drive his philosophical opponents into confessing that by their own standards it is inappropriate for anyone to give his assent to any judgement.
		Arcesilaus was elected scholarch around 272 BC, and he appears to have drawn his philosophic inspiration from the role allocated to Socrates in Plato’s early dialogues.
		Arcesilaus’ enthusiastic employment of the methods of Socratic dialectic and his proficiency at undermining positive claims by these means lead to his being associated with a wide-ranging suspension of judgement and a powerfully argued repudiation of other people’s claims to have arrived at knowledge or rationally justified beliefs.
	www.webspawner.com /users/alanbailey/scepticism4.html (1035 words)

	HighBeam Research: Library Search: Results (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		ARCESILAUS [ Arcesilaus], c.316-c.241 BC, Greek philosopher of Pitane in Aeolis.
		Deorum, was the scepticism of the Middle Academy represented by Arcesilaus and Carneades.
		Arcesilaus taught that certitude is impossible and only probable knowledge is attainable.
	www.highbeam.com /library/search.asp?refid=ency_botresults&q=Arcesilaus (496 words)

	Herodotus - The Histories - Page 720
		Arcesilaus pursued, and chased them to place called Leucon, which is in Libya, where the Libyans resolved to risk a battle.
		Arcesilaus, after this blow, fell sick, and, while he was under the influence of a draught which he had taken, was strangled by Learchus, one of his brothers.
		This Learchus was afterwards entrapped by Eryxo, the widow of Arcesilaus, and put to death.
	www.galileolibrary.com /ebooks/eu04/herodotus_page_720.htm (217 words)

	Ancient Skepticism
		However one interprets Arcesilaus' ultimate convictions, the crux of his attack on Stoicism is a critique of the “cataleptic” impression (the katalêptikê phantasia) the Stoics propose as a basis for their epistemology.
		In favour of the view that Arcesilaus endorsed “the reasonable”, it can be said that Sextus seems convinced that this is so, and that some such commitment makes good philosophical sense (see Hankinson, 86-91), especially in a historical context in which philosophers were expected to provide a practical guide to life.
		Debates about Arcesilaus' skepticism frequently revolve around the question whether it can be made consistent with an acceptance of a practical criterion like the “reasonable” or, much more fundamentally, the beliefs which daily life appears to require.
	setis.library.usyd.edu.au /stanford/archives/fall2003/entries/skepticism-ancient (9234 words)

	Arcesilaus -- Encyclopædia Britannica
		Refusing to accept or deny the possibility of certainty in knowing, Arcesilaus advocated a skeptical “suspension of judgment” (epoche).
		He rebelled against two Skeptics, Arcesilaus and Carneades, both of whom had a strong...
		Greek academic philosopher whose work On Grief created a new literary genre, the consolation, which was offered on the occasion of a misfortune such as death.
	www.britannica.com /eb/article-9009253?tocId=9009253 (418 words)

	Diogenes Laertius: Life of Strato, from Lives of the Philosophers, translated by C.D. Yonge
		I leave all my property in my house to Lampyrion and Arcesilaus; and with the money which I have at Athens, in the first place, let my executors provide for my funeral and for all other customary expenses; without doing anything extravagant, or, on the other hand, anything mean.
		And let my executors give him five hundred drachmas of silver, and one of my slaves, whichever Arcesilaus may approve, in order that, as he has done me great service, and co-operated with me in many things, he may have a competency, and be enabled to live decently.
		And Arcesilaus shall discharge the engagements which Strato has entered into with Olympichus and Ausinias which are preserved in writing in the care of Philocrates, the son of Tisamenus.
	classicpersuasion.org /pw/diogenes/dlstrato.htm (761 words)

	ARCESILAUS - LoveToKnow Article on ARCESILAUS (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		It can develop vacuoles, or ther fine bubbles of carbonic acid gas in its cytoplasm, to float to the surface of the water.
		sk ARCESILAUS (3 16241 B.c.), a Greek philosopher and founder TI the New, or Middle, Academy (see ACADEMY, GREEK).
		Aeolis, he was trained by Autolycus, the rnathe- fri atician, and later at Athens by Theophrastus and Crantor, ~l whom he was led to join the Academy.
	www.1911encyclopedia.org /A/AR/ARCESILAUS.htm (630 words)

	240 B.C. - events and references
		Ariston was a contemporary of Perseus and Arcesilaus.
		Arcesilaus rejects Baton because he has insulted Cleanthes.
		Sayings of Arcesilaus, addressed to a pupil of Alexinus, Antagoras, Apelles, Aridelus, Charmides, Cleanthes, Ctesibius, Hemon, Telephus, and others.
	www.attalus.org /bc3/year240.html (520 words)

	Scepticism - Lecture 5a
		One plausible explanation of a decision to conceal his connection with the views of Arcesilaus is that Aenesidemus desired to avoid becoming embroiled in further disputes about the interpretation of past scholarchs.
		Pyrrho pre-dates Arcesilaus, and issues of historical priority were of considerable importance to Greek philosophers.
		Sextus does report that Arcesilaus declares that suspension of judgement really is good whereas the Pyrrhonist merely reports that it seems good to him.
	www.webspawner.com /users/alanbailey/scepticism5.html (1450 words)

	Arcesilaus at PhilosophyClassics.com -- essays, resources (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06)
		ARCESILAUS (316—241 B.C.), a Greek philosopher and founder the New, or Middle, Academy.
		Born on 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.
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	www.philosophyclassics.com /showauthor.asp?IDNo=272 (305 words)

	Diogenes Laertius: Life of Arcesilaus, from Lives of the Philosophers, translated by C.D. Yonge
		BY DIOGENES LAERTIUS, TRANSLATED BY C.D. ARCESILAUS was the son of Seuthes or Scythes, as Apollodorus states in the third book of his Chronicles, and a native of Pitane in Aeolia.
		Accordingly once, when he had gone to visit Ctesibius who was ill, seeing him in great distress from want, he secretly slipped his purse under his pillow; and when Ctesibius found it, "This," said he, "is the amusement of Arcesilaus." And at another time he sent him a thousand drachmas.
		There were also three other persons of the name of Arcesilaus; one a poet of the old Comedy; another an elegiac poet; the third a sculptor, on whom Simonides wrote the following epigram:
	classicpersuasion.org /pw/diogenes/dlarcesilaus.htm (1890 words)

	Dictionary of the History of Ideas
		With Arcesilaus the picture is clearer but still far
		A second view that Arcesilaus is said to have
		Arcesilaus might well have drawn on Plato; but the
	etext.lib.virginia.edu /cgi-local/DHI/dhicontrib2.cgi?id=dv4-32 (3700 words)

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