CAltNE'ADES, a native of Cyrene In Africa, was the founder of the school of philosophy called the New Academy. The precise date of hie birth is d.fficult to ascertain : it was probably about n.c. 214. lie appears to have received his fleet Instruction io philosophy from Dimmest. the Stoic, and hence the joke recorded Ly Cicero (' Acad. Queen,' Iv. 30): be sometimes said, -Ir I Irate argued correctly, I sin satisfies); if badly, Diogenes shall give back his mina." lie &Remus% attended the lectures of Egesinue, master of the academy, and suc ceeded him in the chair. In this situation he attained great eminence, and se high was the estimation in which he was held that (Cicero, 'De Oral.; IL 37; ' AuL Geil, vii. 14) he was selected with two others, Diogenes the Stoic, and Critolaus the Peripatetic, to go on an embassy from Athens to Rome (ow. 154 ) Cicero ('D. Fin.,' lit 12) praiser him for his great eloquence. which Anlue Genius (vit. 14) dacribeefie vehement and rapid, differing in this respect from the correct cud elegant Idyl. of Diagram and the quiet and chaste style of Critolaus. (.Ferro (' 1>r Oral.; iL 38) says that be never defended a point which be did not prove, or opposed ao orpiment which he did not overthrow. Evan other itb1101110p617 anti orators, it III said, conatsntly resorted to hie echool. (Nog. Dont, 'Life of Carn.') Carneades not uufre quesitly sacrificed pereonal comfort and dee:ninon to ardour in his favourite purenito; be sometimes forgot to take his meals,_and often grudged the time necessary for combing his hair, &c. Before disputing, as he frequently did, with Chryeippue the Stoic, he was accustomed to brace the powers of his mind by the exhibitiou of hellebore.
Valer. Max.,' viii. 7.) Ho died nt the age of ninety, according to Cicero (' Acad. Quest; iv. G) and Valerlue Maximus (viii. 7.) The doctrines of Carlo:rides appear to have differed little from those of Arcesilains and the other philosophers of the Middle Academy. The difference consisted more perhaps in the mode of statement than in the tenets themselves. Clitomachus, who succeeded Carneades, owned that he wee never able to ascertain what the precise doctrines of his predecessor were. Carneades maintained that as the senses and understanding frequently deceive ye, nothing which we learn by means of them can be certain; that the highest point we can attain is great probability, and that of probability there are several degrees. He considered that all the knowledge which the human mind was capable of gaining ought not to be called knowledge but opinion, as there was no sure teat of truth. Anointing appears to have main tained the game tenets, but to have asserted them in a broader and more offensive manner. He was chiefly employed lu destroying the systems of others by means of his doctrine of uncertainty, and lie almost entirely disregarded the application of his principles in the form of ethics; while Carneades, on the other hand, devoted himself partly to their practical use in the affairs of life. The constructive method of Carneades preserved him from the odium and suspicion which the destructive and aggressive method had brought upon Arcesilstis. [Aocossusils.]