Single Idea 2666

[catalogued under 1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 3. Philosophy Defined]

Full Idea

Carneades said the two greatest things in philosophy were the criterion of truth and the end of goods, and no man could be a sage who was ignorant of the existence of either a beginning of the process of knowledge or an end of appetition.

Gist of Idea

Carneades' pinnacles of philosophy are the basis of knowledge (the criterion of truth) and the end of appetite (good)

Source

report of Carneades (fragments/reports [c.174 BCE]) by M. Tullius Cicero - Academica II.09.29

Book Reference

Cicero: 'De Natura Deorum and Academica (XIX)', ed/tr. Rackham,H. [Harvard Loeb 1933], p.505


A Reaction

Nice, but I would want to emphasise the distinction between truth and its criterion. Admittedly we would have no truth without a good criterion, but the truth itself should be held in higher esteem than our miserable human means of grasping it.