Neither would we agree with Brochard, whose
solution of the difficulty is on the whole the most logical,
_i.e._, that Aenesidemus had necessarily already passed through
two phases of philosophical belief. It is possible to admit a
gradual evolution of thought in Aenesidemus without supposing in
either case a change of basis. His withdrawal from the Academy
is an argument against, rather than in favor of a change on his
part, and was caused by the well-known change in the attitude of
the Academy.
Many of the teachings of the Sceptical School were taken
directly from the Academy, belonging to those doctrines
advocated in the Academy before the eclectic dogmatic tendency
introduced by Antiochus. In fact, Sextus himself claims a close
relation between the Middle Academy and Pyrrhonism.[1]
Aenesidemus, although he was a Sceptic, belonged to the Academy,
and on leaving it became, as it were, a pioneer in Pyrrhonism,
and cannot be judged in the same way as we should judge a
Sceptic of Sextus' time.
It seems a self-evident fact that during the two centuries which
elapsed between the time of Aenesidemus and Sextus, the
standpoint of judgment in the Sceptical School had greatly
changed. An example illustrating this change we find in a
comparison of the presentation of Scepticism by Diogenes with
that of Sextus. The author Whom Diogenes follows, probably one
of the Sceptical writers, considers Xenophanes, Zeno, and
Democritus, Sceptics, and also Plato,[2] while Sextus, in regard
to all of these men, opposes the idea that they were
Sceptics.
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