Academic skepticism and the socratic method

When Arcesilaus became scholarch of the Academy around 268/7 BCE there began a new chapter in the school’s history, a skeptical period, which lasted and evolved for almost two centuries. There are at least two features of Socrates’ philosophy that influenced Arcesilaus and his successors, of whom the most influential was Carneades, and underlie this skeptical turn. One feature is Socrates’ well-known avowal of ignorance, in the light of his repeated failure to find truth. Another feature is the method that Socrates used in his search for truth, the so-called Socratic method. This so-called New Academy seems to have modified this method into a dialectical one, according to which they argued against the various theses of other philosophers, not least the Stoics, using their opponents’ premises, and finally recommending suspension of judgment.