Academica

Cicero. M. Tulli Ciceronis. Scripta Quae Manserunt Omnia. Plasberg, Otto, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1908.

Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA (per Perseus's terms)

Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.

This work is a philosophical dialogue that examines the uncertainty of human knowledge and the search for truth by comparing the doctrines of the "Old Academy," the "New Academy," and the Stoics. The dialogue begins in a villa in southern Italy, where Cicero, Atticus, and Varro reunite and debate the significance of writing philosophy in the Latin language. Varro traces the history of philosophy from Socrates onward, explaining the tripartite system of ethics, physics, and logic shared by the Old Academy and the Peripatetics, before introducing Zeno's Stoic epistemology. In response, Cicero takes over as the narrator in the latter part, discussing how Arcesilaus founded the New Academy—characterized by the suspension of judgment (epoche)—to counter Zeno's dogmatism, and exploring its historical background. Thus, the work illuminates how a skeptical attitude toward dogmatic truth emerged in the history of philosophical inquiry.