Carneades of Cyrene

Carneades was a member of the so-called New Academy. Here he was to be the most popular and most famous scholar, making the whole academy famous among all the citizens. He was even supposed to be so busy studying and teaching that he didn't even have time to cut his hair or his nails.

Carneades was a radical skeptic and probabilist. Mostly he questioned the knowledge of truth by reason and by paradox. He said one should be satisfied with probability. He said of probability, "The criterion of probability is clarity and distinctness. We see better in the light or when we are not tired, etc.). The second condition is the co-occurrence of other ideas and their careful examination. (All circumstances, conditions, surroundings, etc., should be examined.)" This is a highly problematic statement because unless one knows the truth, one cannot even determine what is more likely.

He was also a great critic of the Stoic school and the Epicureans. He is also known as a major figure in religious skepticism, where he collected a number of arguments speaking to the undecidability of the question of the knowability of the gods.

He left no writings, but his teachings were copiously recorded by his pupil Kleitomachos. References to this teaching are also found in Cicero and Sextus Empiricus, since Carneades was on a philosophical mission in Rome.