greek-epistemologyfeatured in 30 works

The Criterion of Truth

The ultimate yardstick a philosophy uses to sort the true from the false — its answer to the question of what we should finally trust.

The 'criterion of truth' (kriterion) is the standard or faculty we use to tell true impressions from false ones. From the 4th–3rd century BCE onward it became a central problem of Hellenistic philosophy, with each school naming a different judge: the Epicureans trusted the senses, the Stoics the apprehensive impression, and the Skeptics denied that any reliable criterion exists at all. In his surveys, Sextus Empiricus turned this single question into the frame for the whole ancient debate about how far human knowledge can reach.

How it traveled

On the murder of Herodes
Athens · -411
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On the Choreutes
Athens · -411
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Cratylus
Athens · -375
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Republic
Athens · -375
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Theaetetus
Athens · -369
redefines
Philebus
Athens · -355
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Laws
Athens · -348
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Rhetoric
Chalcis · -335
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Metaphysics
Chalcis · -322
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Nicomachean Ethics
Chalcis · -322
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Histories
Megalopolis · -118
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In C. Verrem
Formiae · -70
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Pro Fonteio
Formiae · -69
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Pro A. Cluentio
Formiae · -66
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De Rerum Natura
Rome · -55
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Academica
Formiae · -45
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Lucullus
Formiae · -43
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de Natura Deorum
Formiae · -43
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de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum
Formiae · -43
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Institutio Oratoria
Rome · 95
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Adversus Coloten
Chaeronea · 95
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Discourses
Nicopolis · 108
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Hermotimus
Samosata · 180
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Noctes Atticae
Rome · 180
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Quomodo historia conscribenda sit
Samosata · 180
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Adversus Mathematicos
Alexandria · 190
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Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes
Alexandria · 210
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Vitae philosophorum
— · 240
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HaEmunot veHaDeot
Sura (Babylonia) · 933
Kuzari
Jerusalem · 1120

Key passages(20)

Origin Anchor — gr-criterion-truth↗origin

Fragments & Testimonia · Epicurus