This is heavily based on the writings of Doug Bates… it uses a lot of his words and was an attempt to simplify his writings.
Introduction: who is Pyrrho?
Pyrrho of Elis was a Greek philosopher, born in Elis, who lived somewhere between about 360 – 270 BCE. Diogenes Laertius, with his usual eye for anecdotes, says Pyrrho:
joined Anaxarchus, whom he accompanied on his travels everywhere so that he even met with the Indian Gymnosophists and with the Magi. This led him to adopt a most noble philosophy, to quote Ascanius of Abdera, taking the form of agnosticism and suspension of judgement. He denied that anything was honourable or dishonourable, or just or unjust. And so, universally, he held that there is nothing really existent [true], but custom and convention govern human action ; for no single thing is in itself any more this than that….
Ænesidemus says that he studied philosophy on the principle of suspending his judgment on all points, without however, on any occasion acting in an imprudent manner, or doing anything without due consideration…..
He would withdraw from the world and live in solitude, rarely showing himself to his relatives ; this he did because he had heard an Indian reproach Anaxarchus, telling him that he would never be able to teach others what is good while he himself danced attendance on kings in their courts. He would maintain the same composure at all times, so that, even if you left him when he was in the middle of a speech, he would finish what he had to say with no audience but himself
Lives of the Philosophers [another version]
We have no surviving writings from Pyrrho although, apart from the brief account in Diogenes Laertius, one from the Christian Eusebius, there is a lengthy account by Sextus Empircus known as Outlines of Pyrrhonism [1] [2].
What follows here is a radical simplification, which shows his philosophy as a way of life, more than a mode of making propositions.
What is Pyrrhonism
Pyrrhonism, like many other Greek philosophies, sets forth a prescription of how to live a life of eudaimonia (happiness, flourishing, and excellence). Pyrrhonists claim that achieving eudaimonia involves achieving a prior and consistent state of tranquility, equanimity, untroubled by unnecessary acceptance of possibly erroneous and troubling thoughts. The Greek term for this state is ataraxia, “without ‘disturbance’ or ‘trouble’.”
Pyrrhonists do not claim that ataraxia is objectively good or virtuous; they just argue that experience shows that ataraxia is more conducive to eudaimonia than are the states of being anxious, troubled, and perturbed.
Pyrrhonists observe that people are primarily prevented from gaining ataraxia (and hence gaining eudaimonia) is through belief in what they call ‘dogmas’.
A dogma is a belief in something “non-evident,” or an assertion about the truth of something which is non-evident, “Non-evident” means to be derived from something other than experience. For example we it is not a dogma to assert that being run over by car is likely to be painful. Asserting that people will be run over by cars because they are not virtuous is a dogma.
However, as there is no generally agreed upon criteria for resolving disputes about dogmas, and dogmas can shape our perceptions of reality, endless dispute is possible. In itself, this dispute shows that dogma can impede ataraxia.
[it is not always easy to be sure when a proposition is evident or not.]
To dispel belief in dogmas, and achieve ataraxia, Pyrrhonism prescribes a large number of the kind of things that contemporary French philosopher and student of ancient Greek philosophy, Pierre Hadot, terms “spiritual exercises” which may be classified into three broad categories: aporetic, ephectic, and zetetic.
a) The aporetic exercises help a person avoid coming to (premature) conclusions.
b) The ephectic exercises help a person suspend judgment, or withhold assent, on truth of the non-evident.
c) The zetetic exercises direct the mind to keep searching for more evidence, or arguments, to avoid sticking with conclusions.
To quote Mr.Bates:
In Pyrrhonism and Stoicism ataraxia is not a doctrine that tells people to avoid stressful things, such as a stressful career, but it is so in Epicureanism, which encourages practitioners to avoid stressful activities, such as participating in politics. In contrast, the Pyrrhonist approach is about achieving equanimity despite being in stressful situations, such as going into battle.
Bates 2022 Ataraxia A Key Pyrrhonist Concept
Pyrrhonism is not really just skepticism, which can be said to be about using doubt, but a form of practice which can involve skepticism, so as to help people achieve peace. As such it has been alleged, and I think plausibly, to have been influenced by Buddhism, especially if Pyrrho did travel to India.
Tags: philosophy, skepticism
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