Noterelle filosofiche e linguistiche sulla resa di katalepsis negli Academici libri di Cicerone

It is known that in the Academics Cicero establishes the vocabulary of Western gnoseology and in Luc. 17 he designates cognitio, perceptio and comprehension as translations of katalepsis. However, it has never been tested whether the use of the three Latin terms implies the meaning of the Stoic term in every occurrence and in both the first (Lucullus) and the second version (Academici libri) or not. After examining the explicit mentions of katalepsis (§ 1), I review the occurrences without reference to the Greek, in the Academici (§ 2) and in the Lucullus (§ 3), leaving for last the two most complicated loci (Luc. 23 and 129: § 4). The finding is that Cicero adheres with considerable rigor to what is planned in Luc. 17: cognitio, perceptio and comprehensio alternate as translations, without any difference between them and without ever taking on meanings other than that of katalepsis. Cicero thus combines terminological scruple with his artistic sensibility.