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Single Idea 2666

[filed under theme 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 Ref

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.


The 10 ideas from 'fragments/reports'

Carneades' pinnacles of philosophy are the basis of knowledge (the criterion of truth) and the end of appetite (good) [Carneades, by Cicero]
Future events are true if one day we will say 'this event is happening now' [Carneades]
We say future things are true that will possess actuality at some following time [Carneades, by Cicero]
Carneades distinguished logical from causal necessity, when talking of future events [Long on Carneades]
Voluntary motion is intrinsically within our power, and this power is its cause [Carneades, by Cicero]
Some actions are within our power; determinism needs prior causes for everything - so it is false [Carneades, by Cicero]
Even Apollo can only foretell the future when it is naturally necessary [Carneades, by Cicero]
Carneades said that after a shipwreck a wise man would seize the only plank by force [Carneades, by Tuck]
People change laws for advantage; either there is no justice, or it is a form of self-injury [Carneades, by Lactantius]
Carneades denied the transitivity of identity [Carneades, by Chisholm]