Greek philosophers

Aenesidemus

Aenesidemus was a Greek philosopher, a representative of the younger Pyrrhonian skepticism. He was born in Knossos, Crete, and lived around the 1st century BC.

Aenesidemus was originally a member of the Platonic Academy at a time when skepticism was prevalent. After the rise of other movements, he decided to leave the Academy and founded his own school, which took the name of Pyrrhon of Elyda.

Aenesidemus's most famous book was Pyrrhôneoi logoi (Pyrrhonic Discourses in Eight Books). In it, Aenesidemus defined the concept of epoché as well as ten reasons why epoché is inevitable - the so-called ten tropes that should aid in judgment in any situation.

He is credited with the origin of the basic idea of skepticism, namely, "panti logo logos antikeitai" (or "To every argument one can assign a counter-argument of exactly equal weight.").

Antiochos of Ascalon, Menodotus of Nicomedia, Theodas, Herodotus, Agrippa, and others were among the pupils of his Pyrrhonian school. All those mentioned are empirical physicians who always focused on symptoms when treating disease.