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Work #1733

Arguments and Testimonia (Reconstructed)

Arcesilaus (reconstructed)
c. mid-3rd century BCE (original arguments); testimonia from 1st c. BCE–3rd c. CE · Ancient Greek
Reconstructed arguments and testimonia from Cicero, Sextus Empiricus, and Diogenes Laertius · Academic scepticism

Epoché as philosophical method — the arguments that turned Plato's Academy into the ancient world's foremost school of scepticism

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Arguments and Testimonia (Reconstructed)
Time · Extent not engaged
Time · Ontological Status not engaged
Time · Grain not engaged
Time · Freedom not engaged
Time · Traversability not engaged
Time · Dimensionality not engaged
Time · Direction not engaged
Space · Extent not engaged
Space · Ontological Status not engaged
Space · Curvature not engaged
Space · Dimensionality not engaged
Space · Locality not engaged
Matter · Extent not engaged
Matter · Ontological Status not engaged
Matter · Conservation not engaged
Matter · Dimensionality not engaged
Matter · Locality not engaged
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Partial
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Passive
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency None
Observer · Moral Authority Reason
Observer · Theological Method N/A
Energy · Extent not engaged
Energy · Ontological Status not engaged
Energy · Conservation not engaged
Energy · Dispersibility not engaged
Information · Ontological Status not engaged
Information · Cosmic Conservation not engaged
Information · Personal Conservation not engaged
Information · Granularity not engaged

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Arguments and Testimonia (Reconstructed)

Time receives no positive treatment. Arcesilaus's concern is whether impressions — including impressions of temporal phenomena — can be known to be true.

Space

Arguments and Testimonia (Reconstructed)

Spatial perception is used as evidence against katalepsis: the tower that looks round from a distance but is square up close. Space itself is not theorised.

Matter

Arguments and Testimonia (Reconstructed)

Material objects are the typical examples in the argument against katalepsis: identical eggs, identical twins, identical wax seals — if material objects can produce indistinguishable impressions, certainty is impossible.

Observer

Arguments and Testimonia (Reconstructed)

The observer is the entire focus: embodied, epistemically limited, plural. The wise person's proper stance is epoché. Agency is passive in that the highest wisdom is withholding assent. No cosmic ordering is guaranteed.

Energy

Arguments and Testimonia (Reconstructed)

Energy receives no treatment in the surviving testimonia.

Information

Arguments and Testimonia (Reconstructed)

All propositional information is uncertain: no impression carries its own certification. The eulogon (reasonable) provides a practical guide to action without epistemic certainty.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Arguments and Testimonia (Reconstructed)

The apraxia problem is the central tension: if one suspends judgment on all propositions, how can one act, choose, or live? Arcesilaus's appeal to the eulogon (reasonable) as a guide to action without assent raises the question of whether "following the reasonable" is itself a form of assent, which would undermine the universality of epoché.