Position

Academic Fallibilism

Nothing can be apprehended with certainty, but some impressions are more persuasive than others, and those that hold up under careful checking may guide inquiry and action without being accepted as true.

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Classification

Position level
specific
Domains
Epistemology

Overview

Carneades developed a graded standard short of certainty: impressions differ in how persuasive they are, and stronger impressions withstand comparison and examination. This supplies a basis for deliberate action without a Stoic cognitive impression. On Clitomachus's report the sage follows the persuasive without assenting to its truth; on the reading Sextus attacks, the Academics assent to it, which is why he keeps the two schools apart. Whether Carneades endorsed the standard or proposed it only to answer the Stoic objection is disputed.

Position on

  • The Possibility of Knowledge

    Against the Stoic claim that action requires cognitive impressions, this position allows inquiry and action to follow critically examined persuasive impressions without treating them as certain knowledge.

Held by traditions

  • Academic Skepticism

    Carneades developed the persuasive-impression criterion in reply to Stoic objections that skepticism made action impossible. Whether he endorsed it as his own doctrine or advanced it dialectically remains disputed.

    Question scope: The Possibility of Knowledge

Broader position

Rival positions

References