Greece & Rome · c. 360–270 BCE
Pyrrho
Founder of Pyrrhonian skepticism, who went to India with Alexander
Taught, according to his pupil Timon, that things are indifferent, unmeasurable and undecidable, so we should be without opinions and unshaken. Ancient sources say he met Indian “naked sages”; whether this shaped his views is debated.
Life and thought
Pyrrho of Elis started out as a painter, then studied with Anaxarchus, a follower of Democritus, and travelled with him in Alexander’s army as far as India, where the ancient sources say they met “naked sages”. Back in Elis he lived quietly and was so respected that the city made him high priest. He wrote nothing; what we know comes mainly from his pupil Timon, preserved in a later summary.
According to Timon, Pyrrho taught that things are “indifferent, unmeasurable and undecidable”, so neither our perceptions nor our opinions are true or false. The right response is to be without opinions, uninclined and unshaken, saying of each thing that it no more is than is not. What follows is first speechlessness, then freedom from disturbance (ataraxia). Whether this describes the world itself or only our inability to know it is debated, as is any Indian influence. Centuries later his name was given to the sceptical movement that Sextus Empiricus recorded.
Shaped by
c. 460–370 BCEDemocritusPyrrho’s teacher Anaxarchus was a follower of Democritus.Shaped
fl. 2nd–3rd c. CESextus EmpiricusPhysician whose books are our main source for ancient skepticismMeanwhile, in other traditions
c. 390–338 BCEShang YangQin minister whose reforms built Qin’s powerc. 372–289 BCEMenciusConfucian who argued that human nature is goodc. 370–310 BCEHui ShiWei statesman, logician and Zhuangzi’s debating partnerc. 369–286 BCEZhuangziDaoist writer of parables, paradoxes and freedomc. 320–250 BCEGongsun LongDisputer famous for “a white horse is not a horse”c. 310–235 BCEXunziConfucian realist who held human nature to be badOn the record
Ancient sources say Pyrrho met Indian “naked sages”; whether this shaped his views is debated.
Pyrrho (c. 365/360–275/270 BCE) went to India with Alexander together with his teacher Anaxarchus, a Democritean; that much is well attested. Diogenes Laertius says the meeting with the gymnosophists shaped his philosophy, but we do not know who they were. C. I. Beckwith (2015) argues Pyrrho was in effect an early Buddhist; most specialists find the parallels suggestive but unproven.