Sextus Empiricus

160-210 AD

Sextus Empiricus was a Greek physician and philosopher. He was a proponent of philosophical skepticism, in which the philosopher withholds judgment about whether an external reality exists.

While others categorized Sextus as being of the empiric school of medicine, he classified himself in the methodic school.

Sextus has three surviving works, one on the Outlines of Pyrrhonism (consisting of three books on the practical and ethical scepticism of Pyrrho of Elis, ca. 360-275 AD), Against the Dogmatists (consisting of five books addressed to issues raised by Logicians, the Physicists, and the Ethicists); and Against the Professors (consisting of six books critiquing professors in the arts and sciences including grammar, rhetoric, geometry, mathematics, astrology and music).

Writings about Sextus Empiricus

Floridi, Luciano (2002). Sextus Empiricus: The Transmission and Recovery of Pyrrhonism. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, American Philological Association.

Review of book by Luciano Floridi on Sextus Empiricus http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2002/2002-08-28.html Retrieved on March 1, 2010.