philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

, acatalepsy (from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

ἀκαταληψία "inability to comprehend" from alpha privative and καταλαμβάνειν, "to seize") is incomprehensibleness, or the impossibility of comprehending or conceiving a thing. It is the

antithesis Antithesis ( Greek for "setting opposite", from "against" and "placing") is used in writing or speech either as a proposition that contrasts with or reverses some previously mentioned proposition, or when two opposites are introduced together ...

of the Stoic

doctrine Doctrine (from la, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief syste ...

katalepsis ''Katalepsis'' ( el, κατάληψις, "grasping") in Stoic philosophy, that meant comprehension. To the Stoic philosophers, ''katalepsis'' was an important premise regarding one's state of mind as it relates to grasping fundamental philosophi ...

(i.e., the ability to apprehend).

George Henry Lewes George Henry Lewes (; 18 April 1817 – 30 November 1878) was an English philosopher and critic of literature and theatre. He was also an amateur physiologist. American feminist Margaret Fuller called Lewes a "witty, French, flippant sort of m ...

, 1863, ''The biographical history of philosophy'', Volume 1, page 297 According to the Stoics, katalepsis was true perception, but to the

Pyrrhonists Pyrrho of Elis (; grc, Πύρρων ὁ Ἠλεῖος, Pyrrhо̄n ho Ēleios; ), born in Elis, Greece, was a Greek philosopher of Classical antiquity, credited as being the first Greek skeptic philosopher and founder of Pyrrhonism. Life ...

and Academic Skeptics, no perception could be known to be true. All perceptions were thus acataleptic, i.e. what, if any, conformity between the object and the perception of that object was unknown and, for the Academic Skeptics, could never be known. For the Academic Skeptics, acatalepsy meant that human knowledge never amounts to certainty, but only to plausibility. For the Pyrrhonists it meant that knowledge was limited to the '' phantasiai'' (typically translated as "appearances," meaning a person's sensed experience) and the ''pathē'' (one's feelings). The Pyrrhonists attempted to show, while Academic Skeptics asserted, an absolute ''acatalepsia''; all human

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

knowledge Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distin ...

, according to them, went no further than to appearances and verisimilitude. The Academic Skeptics responded to the Stoic doctrine of katalepsis with the following syllogism: # There are true and false impressions ('' phantasiai'') # False impressions are non- # True impressions are always such that false impressions could appear identical to them # Among impressions with no perceptible difference between them, it is impossible for some to be and others not # Therefore, there are no impressionsCicero, ''Academica'' 2.40

Notes

{{Skepticism Pyrrhonism Skepticism Epistemological theories Concepts in ancient Greek epistemology

See also

Notes