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Sextus Empiricus

Sextus Empiricus

c. 160 CE–c. 210 CE · Alexandria

Sextus Empiricus (c. 160 – c. 210 CE) was a Greek physician and Pyrrhonist philosopher, the principal surviving source for ancient skepticism. His extant works—the Outlines of Pyrrhonism (Pyrrhoniae Hypotyposes) and the collection conventionally titled Against the Mathematicians (Adversus Mathematicos)—systematically set out the skeptical method of suspending judgment (epoche) and argue against the dogmatic claims of philosophers across logic, physics, ethics, and the liberal-arts disciplines. His name reflects his association with the Empiric school of medicine, though in his own writings he indicates that Pyrrhonists might rather align with the Methodic school. His precise dates and place of residence are uncertain; he is variously connected with Alexandria, Athens, and Rome.

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AlexandriaEgypt

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About Alexandria

Alexandria (al-Iskandariyya) is the great Mediterranean port-city of northern Egypt, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE and a leading centre of learning in antiquity. After the Muslim conquest of Egypt (642) it remained a major commercial and scholarly hub; the Shadhili Sufi Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari (d. 1309) took his nisba from the city, and the modernist reformer Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905) was active in Egypt's intellectual life there and in Cairo.

In Alexandria at the same time

Claudius Ptolemaeus, Harpocration, Apollonius Dyscolus, Vettius Valens, Galen, Diophantus Alexandrinus

Across the traditions, in Alexandria at the same time

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Sextus Empiricus’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Sextus Empiricus’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(2)