Knowledge, Theory of -- Early works to 1800; Philosophy -- Early works to 1800
Besides the actual fragments of the second edition, many indications of its
contents are preserved in the work of Augustine entitled _Contra
Academicos_, which, though written in support of dogmatic opinions,
imitated throughout the second edition of the _Academica_ of Cic. No
writings of the Classical period had so great an influence on the culture
and opinions of Augustine as the _Academica_ and the lost _Hortensius_. I
give, partly from Krische, the scattered indications of the contents of the
former which are to be gathered from the bishop's works. In Aug. _Contr.
Ac._ II. 14, 15, we have what appears to be a summary of the lost part of
Book I. to the following effect. The New Academy must not be regarded as
having revolted against the Old, all that it did was to discuss that new
doctrine of καταληψις advanced by Zeno. The doctrine of ακαταληψια though
present to the minds of the ancients had never taken distinct shape,
because it had met with no opposition. The Old Academy was rather enriched
than attacked by the New. Antiochus, in adopting Stoicism under the name of
the Old Academy, made it appear that there was a strife between it and the
New. With Antiochus the historical exposition of Cic. must have ended. From
this portion of the first book, Aug. derived his opinion (_Contra. Ac._ II.
1) that New Academicism was excusable from the necessities of the age in
which it appeared. Indications of Book II. in Aug. are scarce, but to it I
refer _Contra. Ac._ I. 7 _placuit Ciceroni nostro beatum esse qui verum
investigat etiam si ad eius inventionem non valeat pervenire_, also _ibid._
III. 10 _illis (Academicis) placuit esse posse hominem sapientem, et tamen
in hominem scientiam cadere non posse_. These I refer to Cicero's
development of the _probabile_ in Book II., although I ought to say that
Krische, p. 65, maintains that the substance of Catulus' exposition in the
_Ac. Priora_ transferred to Book IV. of the _Ac. Posteriora_. As this would
leave very meagre material for Book II., nothing indeed excepting the
provisional proof of the deceptiveness of the senses, I cannot accede to
his arrangement; mine, I may remark, involves a much smaller departure from
the first edition. Allusions in Aug. to the attack on the senses by Cic. in
Book II. are difficult to fix, as they apply equally well to the later
attack in Book IV. As to Books III. and IV., I do not think it necessary
here to prove from Aug. the points of agreement between them and the
_Lucullus_, which will find a better place in my notes on the latter, but
merely give the divergences which appear from other sources. These are the
translation of σοφισματα by _cavillationes_ in _Luc._ 75 (Seneca _Ep._
III.), and the insertion in 118 of _essentia_ as a translation of ουσια.
BOOK II.
ENTITLED _LUCULLUS_.
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