Pyrrho of Elis

(c. 365–275 BC)

The founder of Greek scepticism . Pyrrho was originally a painter, but followed Anaxarchus to Persia as part of the train of Alexander the Great. There tradition has it that he was influenced by the gymnosophists (perhaps the Jaina ) or magi ( Zoroastrians ); at any rate he returned to live a highly respected but poor life in his native city of Elis, with his sister, a midwife. He left no writings. It is clear that his way of life involved recognizing the vain pursuits and childish folly of humanity, but after that there are two divergent traditions. According to the one, repeated in Diogenes Laertius and followed by Hume, Pyrrhonism involved a superhuman refusal to accept the testimony of the senses, to the extent that Pyrrho needed constant protection from falling over precipices, refused to recognize Anaxarchus when the latter was stuck in a bog, etc. The other, more likely, tradition, accepted for instance by Montaigne, connects him with the mainstream of ancient scepticism, in resting content with the phenomena or appearance of things, with the morals and manners of the society one is in, and with avoiding all unnecessary speculation. It seems likely that Pyrrho himself was not a dialectician, and did not develop the later sceptical armoury used by the Academy against the Stoics . But he is credited with the fundamental sceptical rhythm of isosthenia, or the balancing of opposite opinions; epochē, or suspension of opinion; aphasia, or silence; and the goal of ataraxia, or tranquillity.