Most Famous Skepticism Philosophers

Pyrrhonian Skepticism is an ancient Greek philosophical school founded by Pyrrho of Elis in the late fourth century BC and given its definitive surviving expression in the writings of Sextus Empiricus in the second century AD. It teaches that for every claim an equally strong opposing claim can be raised, and that the appropriate response is the suspension of judgement (epoche), which in turn produces tranquillity of mind (ataraxia). Distinct from Academic Skepticism, which held that nothing can be known, Pyrrhonian Skepticism withholds judgement even on whether knowledge is possible, neither asserting nor denying. The recovery of Sextus's Outlines of Pyrrhonism in the 16th century launched the modern Skeptical tradition through Montaigne, Bayle, and Hume. Skeptical strategies remain central to contemporary epistemology and philosophy of science.

Philosophers in this tradition

Sextus Empiricus c. 160 – c. 210 · Greek
Sextus Empiricus was a Greek physician and philosopher of the second and early third centuries AD, the principal extant source for ancient Pyrrhonian Skepticism. His major works...
Pyrrho of Elis c. 360 BC – c. 270 BC · Greek
Pyrrho of Elis was an ancient Greek philosopher of the late fourth and early third centuries BC, the founder of the philosophical school of Skepticism that bears his name as Pyr...
Aenesidemus c. 100 BC – c. 40 BC · Greek
Aenesidemus of Cnossos was a 1st-century BC Greek philosopher who revived the Pyrrhonian school of Skepticism after a period in which Skepticism had been dominated by the New Ac...
Carneades 214 BC – 129 BC · Greek
Carneades of Cyrene was a Greek philosopher and the most important head of the New Academy, the skeptical phase of Plato's school. He was famous for his ability to argue with eq...