 Although it has come down to us in a rather misshapen state, containing portions of two quite different editions of the work, On Academic Scepticism (in Latin Academica) cannot be passed over, since it presents an account of the epistemological viewpoint of the sceptical Academy and so in effect serves as a defence of the method that Cicero employs in much of his philosophical writing. At the same time, Cicero does not present a one-sided picture. In the segment sometimes known (after its leading character) as the Lucullus, critique of the New, or sceptical, Academy is mounted, with Cicero responding on behalf of the sceptic.