PYRRHO OF

ELIS (c. 360—270 B.C.)  , a Greek sceptic philosopher and founder of the school known as Pyrrhonism . Diogenes Laertius (ix . 61), quoting from Apollodorus, says that he was at first a painter, and that pictures by him were in existence in the gymnasium at Elis . Later he was diverted to philosophy by the works of Democritus, and became acquainted with the Megarian dialectic through Bryson, pupil of Stilpo . With Anaxarchus, he went to the East in the train of Alexander, and studied in India under the Gymnosophists (q.v.) and under the Magi in Persia . From the Oriental philosophy he seems to have adopted a life of solitude . Returning to Elis, he lived in poor circumstances, but highly honoured by the Elians and also by the Athenians, who gave him the rights of citizenship . His doctrines are known mainly through the satiric writings (MLXXoi) of his pupil Timon of Phlius (the Sillographer) . The main principle of his thought is expressed in the word acatalepsia, which implies the impossibility of knowing things in their own nature . Against every statement the contradictory may be advanced with equal reason (ivoa0evela rim) Mryccv ) . Secondly, it is necessary in view of this fact to preserve an attitude of intellectual suspense (E1roxi), or, as Timon expressed it, obb6 ,uaXXov (i.e. no assertion more valid than another) . The same idea is expressed also by the terms appe>Gla (equilibrium) and h4 aala (refusal to speak, non-committal silence) .

Thirdly, these results are applied to life in

general . Pyrrho concludes that, since nothing can be known, the only proper attitude is imperturbability (ataraxia) . The impossibility of knowledge, even in regard to our own ignorance or doubt, should induce the wise-man to withdraw into himself, avoiding the stress and emotion which belong to the contest of vain imaginings . This drastic scepticism is the first and the most thorough exposition of agnosticism in the history of thought . Its ethical results may be compared with the ideal tranquillity of the Stoics and the Epicureans . (For its relation to the New Academy and to scepticism in general see SCEPTICISM and MEGARIAN SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY.) See histories of philosophy by Zeller, Erdmann, Ueberweg; Ritter and Preller, § 364; Waddington, Pyrrhon et le pyrrhonisme (1877); Zimmermann, Darstellung d. pyrrh . Phil . (1841) and Ueber Ursprung and Bedeutung d. pyrrh . Phil . (1843); Wachsmuth, De Timone Phliasio (1859) .