Pyrrhonism and Buddhism

Two historical exchanges of ideas between Pyrrhonism and Buddhism are thought to have happened in antiquity. The first exchange set in motion Pyrrho's creation of Pyrrhonism.

Pyrrho was originally a follower of Democritus, a contemporary of Socrates. Democritus and Socrates were each influenced by a different set of prior thinkers. Socrates followed in the line that included Anaximander, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, and Archelaus, the last two of whom personally taught Socrates. Socrates in turn influenced Aristippus, Antisthenes, Plato, and many others.

Democritus followed in the line that started with Heraclitus, and includes Xenophanes, Parmenides, and Zeno of Elea. Democritus in turn influenced Epicurus, Protagoras, and Anaxarchus, who personally taught Pyrrho. Democritus was widely traveled and is thought to have visited Egypt, Ethiopia, and India. He is best remembered for claiming that everything was composed of atoms. He wrote extensively not only on natural philosophy (i.e., science) but also on moral philosophy. Unfortunately we have only fragments of his works.

Pyrrho had a life-changing event when he accompanied Alexander the Great's army to India as part of Alexander's retinue of philosophers. He spent about a year and a half in India researching the local philosophies. On part of the return trip to Greece he was accompanied by Kalanos, an Indian philosopher, which allowed him to extend his study of Indian philosophy. When Pyrrho returned to Greece he founded a philosophy based on his interpretation of the Buddhist Three Marks of Existence filtered through his prior adherence to Democritean philosophy.

How the second historical exchange happened is difficult to trace, but the evidence that it happened is strong. We have several books from the Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus, written around 200 CE. These books appear to be mostly compilations of existing Pyrrhonist arguments against the dogmas of the other Hellenistic schools of philosophy. Writing around the same time as Sextus Empiricus was the Buddhist philosopher, Nagarjuna, whose works contain a couple hundred of the same arguments that Sextus Empiricus recorded. Unlike the situation in Greek philosophy, in the context of Indian philosophy nearly all of these arguments appear to have been novel. It seems exceedingly unlikely that Nargarjuna could have come up with all of these arguments himself, and in fact Nargarjuna attests that he did not. He said that they came from "hidden" books.

From this it would appear that Nagarguna obtained access to some Pyrrhonist books that had been imported into India as part of the flourishing trade between India and the Roman Empire. Other Greek books were known to have made it to India. Hence, Pyrrhonism is a major source for Buddhist Madhyamika philosophy.