Practical doctrine that gives assistance in ordinary matters to one who is sceptical in respect of the possibility of real knowledge: it supposes that though knowledge is impossible, a man may rely on strong beliefs in practical affairs. This view was held by the sceptics of the New Academy. Opposed to "probabilism" is "probabiliorism" (Latin probabilior, "more likely"), which holds that when there is a preponderance of evidence on one side of a controversy that side is presumably right. Academic sceptics accept probabilism, while Pyrrhonian sceptics do not.