Socratic ignorance as the model of cautious doubt
Caecilius is still speaking, arguing that human knowledge is uncertain and that the wisest course is to leave doubtful questions undecided.
And yet, if you have a passion for philosophy, let any of you who is great enough imitate Socrates, the prince of wisdom, if you can. Whenever that man was asked about heavenly matters, his famous answer was: what is above us is nothing to us.
So he rightly earned from the oracle the testimony of singular prudence. He himself understood that oracle: he had been set above all men not because he had found out everything, but because he had learned that he knew nothing. Thus the highest prudence is confessed ignorance.
From this source flowed the safe doubt of Arcesilaus, and much later of Carneades and very many of the Academics, in the highest questions. It is a way of philosophizing in which the unlearned can proceed cautiously and the learned gloriously.
And what of Simonides the lyric poet? Is not his hesitation admirable to all and worthy of imitation? When the tyrant Hiero asked him what he thought the gods were and of what kind, Simonides first asked for a day to deliberate, the next day put it off for two more, and soon, when reminded, added another one. Finally, when the tyrant asked the reasons for such a long delay, he answered that the slower his inquiry proceeded, the more obscure the truth became.
In my opinion too, things that are doubtful should be left as they are, doubtful. And when so many and such great men are deliberating, one should not rashly and boldly cast a judgment for one side or the other, lest either old-womanish superstition be introduced or all religion be destroyed.
Latin
Quamquam si philosophandi libido est, Socraten, sapientiae principem, quisque uestrum tantus est, si potuerit, imitetur. eius uiri, quotiens de caelestibus rogabatur, nota responsio est: quod supra nos, nihil ad nos.
merito ergo de oraculo testimonium meruit prudentiae singularis. quod oraculum, idem ipse persensit, idcirco uniuersis se esse praepositum, non quod omnia comperisset, sed quod nihil se scire didicisset: ita confessae inperitiae summa prudentia est.
hoc fonte defluxit Arcesilae et multo post Carneadis et Academicorum plurimorum in summis quaestionibus tuta dubitatio, quo genere philosophari et caute indocti. possunt et docti gloriose.
quid, Simonidis melici nonne admiranda omnibus et sectanda cunctatio? qui Simonides, cum de eo, quid et quales arbitraretur deos, ab Hierone tyranno quaereretur, primo deliberationi diem petiit, postridie biduum prorogauit, mox: alterum tantum admonitus adiunxit. postremo cum causas tantae morae tyrannus inquireret, respondit ille, quod sibi quanto inquisitio tardior pergeret, tanto ueritas fieret obscurior.
mea quoque opinione quae sunt dubia, ut sunt, relinquenda sunt, nec tot ac tantis uiris deliberantibus temere et audaciter in alteram partem ferenda sententia est, ne aut anilis inducatur superstitio aut omnis religio destruatur.