Deciding Without Delusional Thinking

The Pyrrhonist Logos

This is the first of at least two articles promised in my review of Plínio Junqueira Smith’s book, Sextus Empiricus’ Neo-Pyrrhonism. As the book is expensive and dense, but its ideas are tremendously valuable for understanding Pyrrhonism, this is one in a series of articles to expand upon and unpack those ideas for people who are interested in understanding the practice of Pyrrhonism — a practice that reduces distress and anxiety and helps one lead the best life possible.

This article is fairly technical and not suitable for those without good familiarity with Pyrrhonism. If you’re not familiar with Pyrrhonism, I suggest you begin here.

But, for the small audience who has this familiarity, Smith’s observations are fascinating.

Smith has noticed something extraordinary about the first few pages of Sextus Empiricus’ Outlines of Pyrrhonism — the text that gives us our most thorough understanding of ancient Pyrrhonism, and which since late antiquity has been the main source of inspiration for all subsequent Pyrrhonists, such as Montaigne.

This extraordinary discovery is about the Pyrrhonist method of reasoning, called the Pyrrhonist logos, and how part of that method has been overlooked and ignored.