Pyrrho’s Path and the Equanimous Life

Abstract

The shadowy figure of Pyrrho has been intriguing modern scholars ever since the outlines of his thought were rediscovered in the sixteenth century, most notably by Michel de Montaigne. The academic approach to the Pyrrhonian legacy has been complicated, however, not only by the difficulties of reconstructing Pyrrho’s philosophy from particularly fragmentary evidence, but also by the fact that it was not conceived as an academic exercise, but rather as a practical guide to life—or as a Taoist or Buddhist might put it, a Way or Path. The analogies with Eastern teachings should not be taken too far, of course, as if Pyrrho had been literally a Buddhist, let alone a practitioner of Zen; but the parallels are still helpful for “untangling the tangle” and making more vivid and credible a philosophical way of life that was by no means dull and disengaged, as has sometimes been alleged, but on the contrary, loving and joyfully equanimous.