Pyrrho and the Suspension of Judgment

Pyrrho of Elis (c. 365–c. 275 BCE) accompanied Alexander's army to India, where he reportedly met 'naked wise men' (gymnosophists), and returned to found a tradition of radical skepticism. Pyrrho wrote nothing, but his student Timon reported his view that things are indeterminable, so we should not commit to any belief about their true nature. The result of suspending judgment (epoche), Pyrrhonists claimed, is tranquility, ataraxia, the same goal Epicureans sought by other means.

Later Pyrrhonists such as Aenesidemus collected 'modes', standard arguments showing that every appearance can be opposed by another, for instance that the same water feels warm to one hand and cold to the other. The fullest surviving account is by Sextus Empiricus, a doctor writing around 200 CE. Critics argued that a Pyrrhonist could not act at all; Pyrrhonists replied that they follow appearances and customs without claiming they are true.