Socrate, overo, Dell’humano sapere esercitio seriogiocoso (Socrates, or On Human Knowledge)

Socrates’ defence was very carefully heard in the presence of the Academicians in the public assembly over a few days, and it produced no little disquiet in the minds of the judges, whose minds turned to different opinions: many not only inclined to his absolution, but they furthermore considered it reasonable to decree that Socrates should be honoured by comparing him with Hercules, who cast monstrosities out from the sensible world, while he [i.e., Socrates] destroyed them in the mental one. They further proposed that in accordance with Socratic opinion, it should be ordered that judgment on mere human matters should be suspended for the future and the correct balance between affirmation and denial should be retained. Therefore, this would avoid the obstinate rocks which so often induced shipwrecks in the intellect, and moreover, it would lead eloquence, as the proper exercise of human beings, to achieve its peak, leading to the happy success of the wits. It would thus have a wide space in which to ramble, being unrestricted and not constricted into any enclosed or limited dogma. And, in summary, they concluded that this suspension of judgment was a successful remedy to heal and smooth away the blisters and swellings of our minds.

Yet Alcmaeon, a well-known professor of dogmata from the Pythagorean sect, strongly reacted to those who attempted to absolve Socrates by claiming that this judgment surpassed the limit of clemency. [He claimed that] the dignity of human doctrines, on which the decorum of humankind relies, had to be defended. He continued that this issue was most considerable and of relevant importance because of the negative consequences which could follow from Socrates’ indemnity: namely, that the entire intellectual universe—which is no less spacious and extensive than the real one—would be damned and demolished at a stroke; furthermore, that the venerated memory of many lauded men who had suffered in order to leave the revered records of their doctrines to posterity would be abolished. Moreover, that Socrates had shown himself to be a greater enemy of humankind than Timon himself, because he had attempted to induce human beings to assign themselves the role of brutes by discrediting doctrines, which differentiate the latter from the former.

Yet Plato, pursuing a middle path, indeed spoke in this way:

Plato’s proposal was applauded and approved, and for that time, they did not make any decision concerning the issue. Hence, it happened that since the Academy had accepted the charge [of Socrates] but had not acquitted him, Socrates’ fame spread in a different way: it appeared very suspicious to the common people, since he had not been absolved, while some of the wise men continued to hold him in the same high esteem as before.