Sextus Empiricus
160-210 · Hellenistic Philosophy · Prominent
Sextus was a Greek physician and the main surviving voice of Pyrrhonian skepticism. For every argument he laid out one of equal force on the other side, until the mind gives up deciding. That suspension of judgement, epoche, is where calm arrives. The Academic skeptics said knowledge is impossible; Sextus kept inquiring and would not even claim that much. His books are most of what survives of Greek skepticism.
Signature
The position Sextus is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Conviction
- strongly leans Uncertain
- Knowledge
- Skepticism
Positions on the 3 axes the sources answer
- Society
- mildly between Collectivism and Individualism (58 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Beauty
- mildly leans Subjective (33 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Conviction
- strongly leans Uncertain (0 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
17 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Sextus refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Knowledge
- Skepticism
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge?