Pyrrhonism

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Pyrrhonism is an ancient Greek philosophy of extreme skepticism. Pyrrhonists hold no dogmatic beliefs about reality, neither affirming that reality can be known or that it cannot: rather the Pyrrhonist says that investigation has so far not reached a conclusion and so judgement is suspended. Pyrrhonism is named after the Greek philosopher Pyrrho, who was one of the first advocates of extreme skepticism.[1]

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[edit] As a personal philosophy

Pyrrho also believed that his philosophy could be applied to daily life, as he believed that the world's suffering is mostly caused by people's opinions and beliefs. Pyrrho advocated living in a state of "mental ataxia," or perpetual indecision, as he believed that this would free people from worry and allow them to live without judging or deciding anything.[2] For Pyrrho, this included putting himself in dangerous situations because he did not believe his senses could be trusted.[3] It should be noted, however, that Pyrrho was not a Pyrrhonist, nor did the Pyrrhonists claim him as more than an inspirational figure inside their philosophy.[4]

It should be noted that any attempt to follow or live by Pyrrhonism in practice will not eventually drive you batshit crazy, as it is far from conducive to bringing on an existential crisis 24/7 like the one shown below.

[edit] Sample 5 minutes as a paranoid skeptic

Below is a snarkilicious stream-of-consciousness transcript of how fun it is to think like a paranoid skeptic:

  1. Wake up: Did I really just wake up, or am I just imagining it? How do I know I ever slept in the first place? How do I know sleeping and being awake aren't actually the same thing?
  2. Get out of bed: How do I know this is actually a bed? How do I know I am standing? I could still be sitting or lying down for all I know. How do I know I was ever in this so-called "bed" to begin with?
  3. Look around room: How do I know this is even a room? How do I know it is mine? How do I know I am actually looking? I may not even have eyes, and how do I know that eyes are even able to perform the action that is supposedly called "looking"?
  4. Walk over into bathroom: Is this really a bathroom? There's no proof of that. How do I know I'm not still in the bedroom? How do I know that the bedroom ever existed in the first place? How do I know the bathroom even exists? How do I know I exist? How do I know that thing I may or may not have seen in that other room was the kind of object that is supposedly referred to as a "bed"?

...and so on and so forth.

[edit] Life in accordance with appearances

Today the ancient Pyrrhonists are best known through the writings of the late Phyrrhonist Sextus Empiricus. In his Outlines of Skepticism he addresses the question "Do Sceptics reject what is apparent?"

Those who say that the Sceptics reject what is apparent have not, I think, listened to what we say. As we said
before, we do not overturn anything which leads us, without our willing it, to assent in accordance with a passive
appearance - and these things are precisely what is apparent. When we investigate whether existing things are such
as they appear, we grant that they appear, and what we investigate is not what is apparent but what is said about
what is apparent - and this is different from investigating what is apparent itself. For example, it appears to us
that honey sweetens (we concede this inasmuch as we are sweetened in a perceptual way); but whether (as far as the
argument goes) it is actually sweet is something we investigate - and this is not what is apparent but something
said about what is apparent.[5]

"Thus, attending to what is apparent," says Sextus Empiricus, "we live in accordance with everyday observances, without holding opinions... These everyday observances seem to be fourfold, and to consist in guidance by nature, necessitation by feelings, handing down of laws and customs, and teaching of kinds of expertise." It is therefore clear that the Pyrrhonist is the exact opposite of the skeptic who is constantly worried about the reality of his perceptions and is extremely pragmatic, concerning himself with his circumstances and not with holding opinions about the nature of experience.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Ancient Skepticism"
  2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Pyrrho"
  3. Ancient Greek Skepticism
  4. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pyrrho/
  5. Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism. Julia Annas and Jonathan Barnes (trans.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed. 2000). ISBN 0-521-77809-3
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