We can trace throughout the
evolution of doubt, as shown to us in Pyrrhonism, and in
Academic Scepticism, the different results which followed the
difference in origin of the two movements, and these differences
followed according to general laws of development of thought.
Arcesilaus, who introduced doubt into the Academy, claimed to
return to the dialectic of Socrates, and suppressing the
lectures,[1] which were the method of teaching in the later
schools of philosophy, introduced discussions instead, as being
more decidedly a Socratic method. Although, according to Sextus,
he was the one leader of the Academy whose Scepticism most
nearly approached that of Pyrrhonism,[2] yet underneath his
whole teaching lay that dialectic principle so thoroughly in
opposition to the empiricism of Pyrrho. The belief of Socrates
and Plato in the existence of absolute truth never entirely lost
its influence over the Academy, but was like a hidden germ,
destined to reappear after Scepticism had passed away. It
finally led the Academy back to Dogmatism, and prepared the way
for the Eclecticism with which it disappeared from history.
[1] Compare Maccoll _Op. cit._ p. 36.
[2] _Hyp_. I. 232.
The history of Pyrrhonism and that of Academic Scepticism were
for a time contemporaneous. The immediate follower of Pyrrho,
Timon, called by Sextus the "prophet of Pyrrho,"[1] was a
contemporary of Arcesilaus. That he did not consider the
Scepticism of the Academy identical with Pyrrhonism is proved
from the fact that he did not himself join the Academy, but was,
on the contrary, far from doing so.
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