Pyrrhonism

American  

[pir-uh-niz-uhm] / ˈpɪr əˌnɪz əm /

noun

1. the Skeptic doctrines of Pyrrho and his followers.

2. extreme or absolute skepticism.

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Other Word Forms

• Pyrrhonist noun
• Pyrrhonistic adjective

Etymology

Origin of Pyrrhonism

1660–70; < Greek Pýrrhōn Pyrrho + -ism

Example Sentences

At the theater, he bemoans the "limited talents, New World phonemes and intonations and slangy lapses, cecity towards the past, Pyrrhonism and so on of this weak cry of players."

From Time Magazine Archive

He is so far from being a Pyrrhonist in the sense of resting on Pyrrhonism, that he seeks to mount on its shoulders to a higher truth. 

From Pascal by Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)

Launched into a dark shoreless sea of Pyrrhonism, what would remain for us but to sail aimless, hopeless; or make madly merry, while the devouring Death had not yet engulfed us?

From A Century of English Essays An Anthology Ranging from Caxton to R. L. Stevenson & the Writers of Our Own Time by Rhys, Ernest

We would attribute, however, the empirical tendency shown during the whole history of Pyrrhonism to Pyrrho as its originator.

From Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticism by Patrick, Mary Mills

The history of Pyrrhonism and that of Academic Scepticism were for a time contemporaneous.

From Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticism by Patrick, Mary Mills