The Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics - College of Stoic Philosophers

532 THE SCEPTICS.
Chap.
XXIII.
((TvyKarddso'is), and approval never applies to sensa-
tion, but only to thoughts and general ideas.' Lastly,
if the Stoics regarded force of conviction as the dis-
tinctive mark of a true or irresistible conception, and
as belonging to it in distinction from every other, the
Sceptic rejoined that such conceptions do not exist,
and that no true conception is of such a nature, but
that a false one may be equally irresistible.' If no
certainty of perception is possible, no knowledge is
possible.' And since the wise man— for on this
point Arcesilaus agrees with the Stoics—must only
consider knowledge, and not opinion, nothing re-
mains for him but to abstain from all and every
statement, and to despair of any certain conviction.''
' S^xt. Math. 1. c. 1.54.
- Cic. Acad. ii. 24. 27. Zeno
asserted : 'ApK((Ti\aoi. o'lWcc yap Kal ai>f-
An irresistible or
viffrriiioffvyrj ttjs fVifTTij/iTjy
concaptional perception is such
an impression of a real object
as cannot possibly come from
an unreal one. Arcesilaus endeavoured
to prove nullum tale
visum esse a vero, ut non ejusdem
modi etiam a falso posset
esse. The same view in Sext.
1. c. To these may be added
discussions on deceptions of the
senses and contradictions in
the statements of the senses
in Sext. vii. 408, and others
afrio
(f>ai('i-at. All that is here attributed
to Arcesilaus is the assertion
that iiri(TTj]r6v is the cause
of iirta-Ttifiri, and that it is so
when it produces a (pavracria
HaraKriTrriHi). The connection
in which these statements were
made by Arcesilaus was probably
this : If there is such a
thinpas knowledge, there must
be objects which produce it.
These objects, however, do not
exist, there being no object
which does not admit a false
opinion equally well with a true
attributed to the Academicians.
Conf. Cir. N. U. i. 2.5, 70 : Urgebat
Arcesilas Zenonem, cum
ipse falsa omnia diceret, quae
sensibus viderentur, Zenon autem
nonnulla visa esse falsa,
non omnia. To rhese attacks
on Zeno P/iit. De An. (Fr. vii.)
1 , probably refers : Srt ov tS
f JTiiTTTjTui' al-Twv rf/r iir larrffjiTjs us
one.
' Sexf. 1 .">o . firi oljtrris 8e Kara-
AtjtttiktJs (pavraffias oiiOt KOTaATjr
ipis yeviitTfTaf fiv "yhp KoraAr/-
TTTiirp (bainaaia. tTvyKUTaQiais' fxi)
odaris Se KaTaKrjxf/toui iravra ioTM
OLKardXriirTa.
* Scrt. 1. 0. ; Cie. Acad. i.
12, 45; ii. 20, 66; Plut. Adv.