Pyrrho
c. 360 BCE–c. 270 BCE · Elis (Peloponnese)
Founder of Pyrrhonian Skepticism; after accompanying Alexander to India, taught suspension of judgment (epochē) as the path to imperturbable tranquility (ataraxia).
Did you know?
A Greek philosopher marched to India — and met its sages
Pyrrho of Elis, the founder of Greek Skepticism, traveled east with Alexander's army during its Indian campaign of 327–325 BCE. According to the ancient biographical tradition, he conferred there with Indian “gymnosophists” (naked ascetics) and with the Magi — an encounter later writers linked to his doctrine of suspending judgment.
How we know
Pyrrho c. 360–270 BCE; accompanied Alexander to India 327–325 BCE; the meeting with the Indian gymnosophists and the Magi is reported by Diogenes Laërtius, Lives 9.61.
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Elis (Peloponnese)
What they did here
Born in Elis; began as a painter before turning to philosophy under Bryson and Anaxarchus.
About Elis (Peloponnese)
A region of the northwestern Peloponnese that guarded the sanctuary of Olympia and its Games, and whose native sons included the sophist Hippias and Pyrrho, founder of Greek Skepticism.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Pyrrho’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
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Works
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