The Criterion of Truth (American University Studies)

This book examines the controversy between the early Stoics and the Skeptics of the Academy regarding the criterion of truth. For two hundred years the two schools debated the possibility of verifying the accuracy of our perceptions, and, in the course of argument, each altered its position, adopting some of the arguments of its opponents, until a compromise was reached in the so-called «eclectic movement.» The book approaches this controversy from the standpoint of the history of ideas to show it as less a rivalry between schools than a debate within a shared tradition. As the first full-length treatment of the criterion controversy to utilize this approach, it clarifies more than ever before the community of thought between Stoa and Academy.