Timon Of Philus

For the second part of my blog posts talking of skepticism, I will be talking about Timon of Philus, the student of Pyrrho. While Timon of Philus shared the views of skepticism with Pyrrho, he did not share his view of never writing anything down. Timon, in fact, loved to write, and did so often. His most famous work was his satirical pomes Siloi. Sioli were a collection of satirical accounts of many famous philosophers, both the living and the dead, written in hexameter verse. Sadly, these works have all but been lost, save a few bits and pieces that we have salvaged, or other authors have made reference too.

Timon was a very strange looking man. He was born with only a single eye, although he was a great sport about it, often calling himself a Cyclopes. He was also gifted with the unique ability to read the emotions of people, which combined with the fact that he was abandoned as a child, defined him as a skeptic. Upon moving to Elis, he heard of Pyrrho and his unique brand of philosophy, along with his practice of adopting his students. He soion sought after Pyyyho and made himself a student. Stay tuned for the next update on skepticism where we will talk about another school entirely; academic skepticism.