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Thinker · c. 365–275 BCE

Pyrrho

Πύρρων

Pyrrho became the exemplary figure for a skeptical way of life in which withholding settled judgments could release a person from disturbance.

Intellectual setting

Pyrrho lived during the expansion of Macedonian power and the formation of Hellenistic philosophical schools. Reports about his travels are late and difficult to assess.

Key ideas

Suspension

Later Pyrrhonists treated suspension of judgment as a response to unresolved opposition among appearances and arguments.

Tranquility

Skeptical practice was valued not only as a theory of knowledge but as a possible way toward undisturbed living.

Legacy

Later skeptical traditions made him their namesake, especially through Aenesidemus and Sextus Empiricus, though the relation between Pyrrho and mature Pyrrhonism remains contested.