Sextus Empiricus

Sextus Empiricus was an ancient Greek Pyrrhonist philosopher and physician whose surviving writings are our primary source for ancient scepticism. He argued that suspension of judgement (epoché) on all matters of belief leads to tranquillity (ataraxia).

Sextus's Outlines of Pyrrhonism and Against the Mathematicians systematically deployed the ten modes of Aenesidemus and five modes of Agrippa to generate equipollence on every philosophical question. His texts were rediscovered in the Renaissance and ignited the sceptical crisis that shaped early modern philosophy.