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School · 365 BCE–220 CE

Pyrrhonism

Pyrrhonian skeptics cultivated continued investigation, equipollence, suspension of assent, and a life guided by appearances rather than by dogmatic claims about hidden reality.

Shared questions

  • How can suspension of assent answer dogmatic conflict while leaving ordinary life and inquiry possible?

Internal disagreements

  • Whether Pyrrho began a continuous school and how Sextus's therapeutic arguments relate to earlier skeptical practice.

Key texts

  • Outlines of Pyrrhonism — Sextus' handbook sets out the modes and the goal of tranquillity; it is also the main source for Aenesidemus.
  • Against the Logicians — Part of Sextus' longer polemic, which assigns the Ten Modes to Aenesidemus by name.