Folia Theologica 19. (2008)
Perendy László: Judging Philosophers - Theophilus of Antioch on Hellenic inconsistency
JUDGING PHILOSOPHERS 205 as what is acceptable or that which is better to act upon. He needed to fend off the charge that scepticism leads to total paralysis, by defining the kind of reasoning that, in spite of scepticism, remains a suitable basis for action. (...) Carneades voiced a robust rejection of natural theology..."29 He died in 129 BC. Although Theophilus does not name Carneades, he seems to be using similar arguments as he does. Robert M. Grant reminds us that according to Carneades people follow probability in voyaging, sowing a crop, marrying and begetting children. Xenophon points out that people usually follow those who are the best: a doctor, a pilot or a farmer. Origen is using the same analogies for faith: sailing, etc.30 Gábor Kendeffy points out that Theophilus' argumentation resembles that of Cicero, who in his Lucullus defends himself against the charge of apraxia. Cicero proves the applicability of probabilism in everyday life, giving the same examples of navigation and medicine. Kendeffy notes that Cicero also refers to Clitomachus.31 Theophilus may have relied on Carneades also when "he tries to show that Greek ideas about revelation, the gods, and the nature of the world are inconsistent."32 Sextus Empiricus and Diogenes Laertius report the so-called "tenth mode" of Sceptical argumentation, which was used to criticize ethics. "Sextus recommends opposing each category to itself as well as to the others. Just so, in Theophilus' third book he plays materials in such categories against one another."33 First it could be pointed out how absurd the idea of cannibalism (suggested by the Stoics under certain conditions) in itself was. The atheism of the Stoics was also criticized, although they shared this view with their arch-enemies, the followers of Epicurus. Clitomachus (KXeiTÔpaxoç) is the latest philosopher whom Theophilus mentions by name. He was born in Carthage in 187 BC. He was a disciple of Carneades. He became the head of the New Academy in 126 BC. He died in Athens in 109 BC. 29 Blackburn, 55-56. 30 R. M. Grant, Greek Apologists of the Second Century, Philadelphia, 1988,151. 31 Kendeffy G., Az egyházatyák és a szkepticizmus, Budapest, 1999,44-45. See also his introduction to the anthology containing the texts of Cicero and Sextus Empiricus: Antik szkepticizmus. Cicero- és Sextus Empiricus-szövegek, Budapest, 1998, 7-69. 32 R. M. Grant, Greek Apologists, 151. 33 Ibidem, 152.
