Pyrrho 285
school it might be as though by a storm, they then cling to it as though
to a rock. 9. For I would approve of their saying that they believe in all
respects him whom they judge to be a wise man, if they had been able
to make such a judgement while so inexperienced and uneducated. To
settle who is wise seems to be more than any other thing a job for the
wise man. But grant that they were capable of making that assessment;
either they made that judgement after hearing all the arguments and
understanding the positions of the rest of the philosophical schools, or
they delivered themselves into the authority of one man after one quick
hearing. But for some reason or other most people prefer going astray
and defending most aggressively that position which they have fallen in
love with to the job of searching without stubbornness for what can most
consistently be claimed.
Pyrrhonian Scepticism
Pyrrho
Life of Pyrrho: Diogenes Laertius 9.61-108
(selections)
[III-22]- Pyrrho of Elis was the son of Pleistarchus, as Diodes too narrates.
According to Apollodorus in his Chronicles he was formerly a painter;
and, according to Alexander in his Successions, he attended the lectures
of Bryson, son of Stilpo, then Anaxarchus', accompanying the latter
everywhere in his travels, even spending time with the Gymnosophists
in India and the Magi. From this experience, he seems to have theorized
in a most noble way, introducing the idea of ungraspability and suspension
of judgement, according to Ascanius of Abdera. For he said that nothing
was either honourable or shameful, just or unjust; similarly for all cases
he said that nothing exists in truth but that men do everything on the
basis of convention and custom; for each thing is no more this than that. - He was consistent with this view in his manner of living, neither
avoiding anything nor watching out for anything, taking everything as
it came, whether it be wagons or precipices or dogs, and all such things,
relying on his senses for nothing. He was kept alive by his acquaintances
who followed him around, according to the school of Antigonus of Cary-
stus. Aenesidemus, however, says that he only theorized about the suspen-
sion of judgement, whereas he did not actually act improvidently. He
lived to be almost ninety years old.
Antigonus of Carystus in his book on Pyrrho says the following about
him. In the beginning he was a poor and unknown painter. In fact, in