institution
the Academics
also: Academici, Academicos, Academicorum, the Academics
The philosophical school founded by Plato in the Academy gymnasium at Athens, named from the place. Cicero uses the term both for the school as a whole and, in the dispute he records, for those wrongly distinguished from the Peripatetics.
Reading notes
- On the Ends of Good and Evil §3.31 as certain Academics are said to have held
A glance at the sceptical New Academy (notably Arcesilaus and Carneades), who made the goal of the sage the suspension of assent and resistance to 'presentations' (impressions). Cato dismisses this as making prudence impossible by abolishing selection among indifferents.
- On the Nature of the Gods §1.1 the Academics have shown prudence in withholding assent
The skeptical (New) Academy held that certainty is unattainable and the wise man should suspend judgment on uncertain matters. Cicero writes as an adherent of this school, and his method here is to weigh the schools against one another without dogmatically deciding.
- On Duties §3.20 the older Academics
The Old Academy, the school descending from Plato through Speusippus, Xenocrates, and Polemo, here grouped with the Peripatetics. Cicero contrasts their view with the sharper Stoic doctrine he follows in this book.