Arcesilaus
E720259
Arcesilaus was an ancient Greek philosopher and head of the Platonic Academy, known for introducing a skeptical turn to Platonism by emphasizing the impossibility of certain knowledge.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Arcesilaus canonical | 6 |
| Arcesilaus (Greek given name) | 1 |
| Arcesilaus of Pitane | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8143184 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Arcesilaus Context triple: [Xenocrates, influenced, Arcesilaus]
-
A.
Arcesilaus I of Cyrene
Arcesilaus I of Cyrene was an early Greek king of the North African city-state of Cyrene, belonging to the Battiad dynasty that ruled the colony.
-
B.
Panaetius of Rhodes
Panaetius of Rhodes was a 2nd-century BCE Greek Stoic philosopher who led the Stoic school in Athens and significantly reshaped Stoicism by integrating it with Platonic and Aristotelian ideas.
-
C.
Carneades
Carneades was a prominent 2nd-century BCE Greek philosopher and leading figure of the skeptical New Academy, renowned for his critiques of Stoicism and arguments about the uncertainty of knowledge.
-
D.
Chrysippus of Soli
Chrysippus of Soli was a foundational Greek Stoic philosopher whose prolific writings and systematic thought shaped Stoicism into a major Hellenistic school.
-
E.
Damascius
Damascius was a late antique Neoplatonist philosopher and the last scholarch of the Platonic Academy in Athens, known for his profound metaphysical works on the ineffable first principle.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Arcesilaus Target entity description: Arcesilaus was an ancient Greek philosopher and head of the Platonic Academy, known for introducing a skeptical turn to Platonism by emphasizing the impossibility of certain knowledge.
-
A.
Arcesilaus I of Cyrene
Arcesilaus I of Cyrene was an early Greek king of the North African city-state of Cyrene, belonging to the Battiad dynasty that ruled the colony.
-
B.
Panaetius of Rhodes
Panaetius of Rhodes was a 2nd-century BCE Greek Stoic philosopher who led the Stoic school in Athens and significantly reshaped Stoicism by integrating it with Platonic and Aristotelian ideas.
-
C.
Carneades
Carneades was a prominent 2nd-century BCE Greek philosopher and leading figure of the skeptical New Academy, renowned for his critiques of Stoicism and arguments about the uncertainty of knowledge.
-
D.
Chrysippus of Soli
Chrysippus of Soli was a foundational Greek Stoic philosopher whose prolific writings and systematic thought shaped Stoicism into a major Hellenistic school.
-
E.
Damascius
Damascius was a late antique Neoplatonist philosopher and the last scholarch of the Platonic Academy in Athens, known for his profound metaphysical works on the ineffable first principle.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Academic skeptic
ⓘ
Hellenistic philosopher ⓘ ancient Greek philosopher ⓘ head of the Platonic Academy ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Platonic Academy in Athens NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| birthPlace | Pitane in Aeolis NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| citizenship | Ancient Greece NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| deathPlace | Athens NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| disputedClaim | whether he wrote any works ⓘ |
| era | Hellenistic period ⓘ |
| floruit | 3rd century BCE ⓘ |
| influenced |
Carneades
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Cicero NERFINISHED ⓘ later Academic skeptics ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Crantor
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Plato ⓘ Pyrrho NERFINISHED ⓘ Socrates NERFINISHED ⓘ Theophrastus NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| knownFor |
denial of the possibility of certain knowledge
ⓘ
introducing skepticism into the Platonic Academy ⓘ use of Socratic elenchus in argument ⓘ |
| language | Ancient Greek ⓘ |
| movement | Middle Academy NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableStudent | Lacydes of Cyrene NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| occupation | philosopher ⓘ |
| opposedSchool | Stoicism NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| philosophicalConcept |
critique of Stoic kataleptic impressions
ⓘ
probabilistic guidance of action ⓘ suspension of judgment (epochē) ⓘ |
| positionHeld | scholarch of the Platonic Academy ⓘ |
| predecessorOf | Lacydes of Cyrene as head of the Academy NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| region | Aeolis NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| roleInAcademy | reoriented the Academy toward skepticism ⓘ |
| schoolTradition |
Academic Skepticism
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Platonism NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| sourceForLife | Diogenes Laertius NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| standardName | Arcesilaus of Pitane NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| successorOf | Crates of Athens as head of the Academy NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| teachingMethod |
dialectical argumentation
ⓘ
question-and-answer refutation ⓘ |
| viewOnAssent | recommended withholding assent ⓘ |
| viewOnEthics | held that the wise person lives according to what is reasonable or plausible ⓘ |
| viewOnKnowledge | held that nothing can be known with certainty ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Arcesilaus Description of subject: Arcesilaus was an ancient Greek philosopher and head of the Platonic Academy, known for introducing a skeptical turn to Platonism by emphasizing the impossibility of certain knowledge.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Arcesilaus of Pitane
this entity surface form:
Arcesilaus (Greek given name)