New Academy the name given the Academy, the school founded by Plato in Athens, during the time it was controlled by Academic Skeptics after about 265 B.C. Its principal leaders in this period were Arcesilaus (315–242) and Carneades (219– 129); our most accessible source for the New Academy is Cicero’s Academica. A master of logical techniques such as sorites (which he learned from Diodorus), Arcesilaus attempted to revive the dialectic of Plato, using it to achieve the suspension of belief he learned to value from Pyrrho. Later, and especially under the leadership of Carneades, the New Academy developed a special relationship with Stoicism: as the Stoics found new ways to defend their doctrine of the criterion, Carneades found new ways to refute it in the Stoics’ own terms. Carneades’ visit to Rome in 155 B.C. with a Stoic and a Peripatetic marks the beginning of Rome’s interest in Greek philosophy. His anti-Stoic arguments were recorded by his successor Clitomachus (d. c.110 . .), whose work is known to us through summaries in Cicero. Clitomachus was succeeded by Philo of Larisa (c.160–79 B.C.), who was the teacher of Antiochus of Ascalon (c.130–c.67 B.C.). Philo later attempted to reconcile the Old and the New Academy by softening the Skepticism of the New and by fostering a Skeptical reading of Plato. Angered by this, Antiochus broke away in about 87 B.C. to found what he called the Old Academy, which is now considered to be the beginning of Middle Platonism. Probably about the same time, Aenesidemus (dates unknown) revived the strict Skepticism of Pyrrho and founded the school that is known to us through the work of Sextus Empiricus. Academic Skepticism differed from Pyrrhonism in its sharp focus on Stoic positions, and possibly in allowing for a weak assent (as opposed to belief, which they suspended) in what is probable; and Pyrrhonians accused Academic Skeptics of being dogmatic in their rejection of the possibility of knowledge. The New Academy had a major influence on the development of modern philosophy, most conspicuously through Hume, who considered that his brand of mitigated skepticism belonged to this school. See also ACADEMY , ISLAMIC NEOPLATON- ISM , SKEPTIC. P.Wo.