Quod Achadeniici modestiores fuerunt aliis phHo'
The Peril of Intellectual Pride
The ancient philosophers, blinded by their own arrogance and reliance on human reason, were scattered into error by God.
Their rashness blinded the sophists, so that they were given over to a reprobate mind. It's no longer a controversial opinion, but a belief shared by everyone, that the ancient philosophers flourished in their intellects and made progress through their study. For by study and practice, their intellects carved a path for themselves toward things that are by nature almost incomprehensible, and through their efforts, many things were published for posterity, which we enjoy and whose discoveries we admire. They measured the world, subjected the heavens to their own rules, investigated the various causes of nature, and in a way, contemplated the Creator of the universe with purified eyes. So, as if supported by a giant's strength and no longer bolstered by human power alone, they grew arrogant and declared war on the grace of God, relying on the vigor of their reason and their free will, as if they were going to lay hands on heaven itself, like the giants in the myths, by the strength of the virtues they boasted of. They were cast down, therefore, while they were trying to rise; and claiming to be wise, they became fools, and their foolish heart was darkened, so that those who had understood almost everything ended up erring most disastrously in the greatest matters, and distracted by various opinions, they became ignorant even of the simplest things. If, however, the tools of fables seem worthless to anyone (though a wise mind doesn't refuse to be taught even by an enemy, since the chosen people of God shine with the gold, silver, clothing, and all the finery of the Egyptians)—if, I say, the inventions of the pagans seem worthless; then, while impiety lays the foundations of Babylon in the plain of Shinar, and while the tower of pride and the machine of contradiction is erected toward heaven, the division of languages was made by God from the height of the precipice, and with the commerce of speech taken away from the impious, a separation of peoples followed by necessity. So too, when the philosophers raised the machines of their own intellect toward the heights in their own kind of war against God, the unity of the truly unchangeable and unfailing truth was taken away from them. Wrapped in the mists of ignorance, they lost the greatest knowledge of those things that are true by the one and singular Truth. They were convicted of being given over to a reprobate mind by their own works, and as if their leader—the Spirit of truth—had withdrawn, they were scattered into various sects of error and false insanities.
The Modesty of the Academics
In contrast to the dogmatic sects, the Academics are praised for their humble admission of ignorance and their willingness to doubt.
They were made all the more miserable because they didn't even recognize their own failure in these matters. This is why, while the Stoic honors his Providence, he binds everything with the law of necessity; Epicurus, on the other hand, while defending the freedom of things, empties out divine disposition and contends that everything fluctuates by chance. The followers of both stand in opposition and fight over almost every aspect of reality, and as if bound by a sacred oath to Pallas, they speak only in paradoxes or established dogmas, insisting that these are true in every respect. The Academics, however, avoiding the precipice of falsehood, are indeed more modest in that they don't deny their own failure, and being situated in ignorance of things, they doubt almost everything. This is certainly much safer than rashly defining uncertain things. The Academic position is also bolstered by the fact that not only Heraclides Ponticus and our own Cicero—both highly regarded as brilliant men—eventually joined them, but so did many others who would take too long to list. Shouldn't they be preferred to others, given that they are commended by both the modesty of their claims and the authority of such great men?
Read the original Latin
sophis quo8 temeritas excecauit ut darentur in sensum reprohwm. Antiquos quidem philosophos floruisse ingeniis et studio profecisse iam non celebris opinio est sed omnibus in commune persuasa sententia. Ad res enim ex natura fere incomprehensibiles studio et exercitatione uiam sibi fecit ingenium, et illorum beneficio plurima publicata sunt posteris quibus gaudemus et miramur inuentis. Mundum dimensi sunt, celum suis regulis subiecerunt, naturae uarias scrutati sunt causas et uniuersitatis Opificera defecatis quodam modo sunt oculis contemplati. Quasi ergo mole gigantea subuecti et iam non humanis uiribus roborati intumuerunt indixeruntque bellum gratiae Dei de uigore rationis et libero confisi arbitrio, ac si secundum fabulas essent a celo captiuo uirtutum, quibus efferebantur, brachia iniecturi. Deiecti sunt itaque dum alleuarentur, et dicentes se esse sapientes stulti facti sunt, et obscuratum est insipiens cor eorum, ut qui omnia fere pernouerant perniciosissime errarent in maximis, et uariis distracti opinionibus etiam minima ignorarent. Si cui uero fabularum instrumenta uilescunt (licet et ab hoste doceri sapientis animus non detrectet, cum peculiaris populus Dei auro argento uestibus et toto Egiptiorum ornatu resplendeat); si gentilium, inquam, figmenta uilescunt; sic, dum in campo Sennaar fundamenta Babylonis iacit impietas, dum turris elationis et contradictionis machina in celum erigitur, de alto praeb cipitii a Deo facta est linguarum diuisio, subtractoque impiis uerbi commercio ex necessitate secuta est secessio populorum. Sic et philosophi dum ingenii sui machinas suo quodam teomachiae genere in altum erexerunt, eis uere incommutabilis et indeficientis ueritatis subtracta est unitas, et ignorantiae nebulis obuoluti eorum quae ab una et singulari ueritate uera sunt, maximam notitiam perdiderunt, uti in sensum reprobum dati esse conuincerentur ab operibus suis, et tamquam recedente duce, Spiritu scilicet ueritatis, dispergerentur in uarias sectas erroris et insanias falsas.
Et eo quidem miseriores effecti sunt quod in his defectum suum minime agnoscebant. Hinc est quod, dum Pronoen suam Stoicus ueneratur, omnia necessitatis lege constringit; Epicurus e contra, dum rerum tuetur Kbertatem, dispositionem euacuat et omnia casibus fluctuare contendit. E regione consistunt utriusque cultores et de singulis fere rerum articulis dimicant, et quasi Palladis sacramento adstricti solas paradoxas locuntur aut kyriadoxas, et eas usquequaque ueras esse confirmant. Achademici uero uitantes praecipitium falsitatis in eo quidem modestiores sunt quod defectum suum minime diffitentur et in rerum ignorantia positi fere de singulis dubitant. Quod quidem longe tutius est quam incerta temere diffinire. Achademicorum quoque iuuat opinionem quod non modo Eraclides Ponticus et Cicero noster, in summa ingeniosorum uirorum laude recepti, tandem ad eos transierunt, sed et alii plures quos percurrere longum est. Nonne ergo praeferendi sunt aliis quos et asserendi modestia et tantorum uirorum commendat auctoritas?
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