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Pyrrho
Born
c.360BC
Elis
Died
c.270BC
Elis
Era
Ancientphilosophy
Region
WesternPhilosophy
School
Pyrrhonism
Notableideas
Skepticism
Influences[show]
Influenced[show]
Pyrrho (/pro/; Greek: Pyrrn, c. 360 BC c. 270 BC), a Greek philosopher of Classical
Antiquity is credited as being the first Greek skeptic philosopher.
Contents
[hide]
1Life
2Philosophy
3See also
4Notes
5References
6External links
Life[edit]
Pyrrho was from Elis, on the Ionian Sea. Diogenes Laertius, quoting from Apollodorus of Athens, says
that Pyrrho was at first a painter, and that pictures by him were exhibited in the gymnasium at Elis. Later
he was diverted to philosophy by the works of Democritus, and according to Diogenes Laertius became
acquainted with the Megarian dialectic through Bryson, pupil of Stilpo.[1]
Diogenes reports further that Pyrrho, along with Anaxarchus, travelled with Alexander the Great on his
exploration of the East, 'so that he even went as far as the Gymnosophists in India and the Magi'
in Persia. This exposure to Eastern philosophy seems to have inspired him to adopt a life of solitude;
returning to Elis, he lived in poor circumstances, but was highly honored by the Elians and also by the
Athenians, who conferred upon him the rights of citizenship.
Pyrrho wrote nothing. His doctrines were recorded in the writings of his pupil Timon of Phlius.
Unfortunately these works are mostly lost. Today Pyrrho's ideas are known mainly through the
book Outlines of Pyrrhonism written by the Greek physician Sextus Empiricus.
Philosophy[edit]
Pyrrho is renowned for creating the first formal approach to skepticism in Western
Philosophy: Pyrrhonism.
Pyrrho summarized his philosophy as follows: "Whoever wants to live well (eudaimonia) must consider
these three questions: First, how are pragmata (ethical matters, affairs, topics) by nature? Secondly,
what attitude should we adopt towards them? Thirdly, what will be the outcome for those who have this
attitude?" Pyrrho's answer is that "As for pragmata they are all adiaphora (undifferentiated by a logical
differentia), astathmta (unstable, unbalanced, not measurable), and anepikrita (unjudged, unfixed,
undecidable). Therefore, neither our sense-perceptions nor our doxai (views, theories, beliefs) tell us the
truth or lie; so we certainly should not rely on them. Rather, we should be adoxastous (without
views), aklineis (uninclined toward this side or that), and akradantous (unwavering in our refusal to
choose), saying about every single one that it no more is than it is not or it both is and is not or it neither
is nor is not.[2]
Adiaphora, astathmta, and anepikrita are strikingly similar to the Buddhist Three marks of existence,
[3]
suggesting that Pyrrho's teaching is based on what he learned in India, which is what Diogenes
Laertius reported.[4]
The main principle of Pyrrho's thought is expressed by the word acatalepsia, which connotes the ability
to withhold assent from doctrines regarding the truth of things in their own nature; against every
statement its contradiction may be advanced with equal justification.
Pyrrhonians (or Pyrrhonism) can be subdivided into those who are ephectic (a "suspension of
judgment"), zetetic ("engaged in seeking"), or aporetic ("engaged in refutation").[5]
See also[edit]
Callisthenes
Greco-Buddhism
Nausiphanes
Notes[edit]
1.
2.
3.
4.
Jump up^ "The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers". Peith's Web.
Retrieved March 23, 2016.
5.
Jump up^ Pulleyn, William (1830). The Etymological Compendium, Or, Portfolio
of Origins and Inventions. T. Tegg. p. 353.
References[edit]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh,
ed. (1911). "article name needed". Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Algra, K., Barnes, J., Mansfeld, J. and Schofield, M. (eds.), The Cambridge History of
Hellenistic Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Annas, Julia and Barnes, Jonathan, The Modes of Scepticism: Ancient Texts and Modern
Interpretations,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Beckwith, Christopher I., Greek Buddha. Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central
Asia, Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 2015.
Bett, Richard, "Aristocles on Timon on Pyrrho: The Text, Its Logic and its Credibility" Oxford
Studies in Ancient Philosophy 12, (1994): 137-181.
Bett, Richard, "What did Pyrrho Think about the Nature of the Divine and the
Good?" Phronesis 39, (1994): 303-337.
Bett, Richard, Pyrrho, His Antecedents, and His Legacy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Burnyeat, Myles and Frede, Michael (eds.), The Original Sceptics: A Controversy, Indianapolis:
Hackett, 1997.
Doomen, Jasper, "The Problems of Scepticism" Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy 10
(2007): 36-52.
Halkias, Georgios, "The Self-immolation of Kalanos and other Luminous Encounters among
Greeks and Indian Buddhists in the Hellenistic world". Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist
Studies, Vol. VIII, 2015: 163-186.
Hankinson, R.J., The Sceptics, London: Routledge, 1995.
Kuzminski, Adrian, Pyrrhonism; How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism, Lanham,
Lexington Books, 2008.
Long, A.A., Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics, University of California Press,
1986.
Long, A.A. and Sedley, David, The Hellenistic Philosophers, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1987.
Striker, Gisela, "On the difference between the Pyrrhonists and the Academics" in G.
Striker, Essays on Hellenistic Epistemology and Ethics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1996, 135-149.
56.
External links[edit]
Lartius, Diogenes (1925). "Others: Pyrrho". Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. 2:9.
Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.