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Dictionary definition: Sextus Empiricus
- Article from:
- The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
- Author:
Copyright© The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information)
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Sextus Empiricus (
fl.
c.
AD 200)
Doctor of medicine, and author of the most distinguished works of ancient
scepticism
that have survived. Sextus was a Greek who may have spent time in Rome, and Alexandria, but little is known about his life, including where he was born and died. His works are divided into the
Outlines of Pyrrhonism
and
Adversos Mathematicos
(against the professors, or dogmatists). These works provide the main codification of Greek scepticism. Sextus defends a
Pyrrhonian
position whereby even the dialectic undermining the ‘trickster reason’ is eventually itself to be regarded quizzically: in his famous metaphor, it acts like a purgative, expelling itself along ...