ABSTRACT
Skepticism began as a philosophical movement with Pyrrho, who lived from 360 to 270 BC, and for whom Skepticism is still sometimes called Pyrrhonism. Pyrrho had the ability to discourse at length and engage in questioning. He was respected and honored both in Athens and in his native city, Elis, and he was admired by Epicurus. Pyrrho's leading pupil, Timon, who lived from about 325 to 235 BC, was known as a satirical polemicist. He wrote lampoons of many earlier philosophers, such as Parmenides and Zeno of Elea, Xenophanes, some of the Sophists, Epicurus, Zeno of Citium, and Aristotle. When Arcesilaus from Pitane succeeded his teacher Crates as head of the Academy in Athens in about 273 BC, a new period of Skepticism began, the 'New Academy', which some writers called the Middle Academy. Sextus's skeptical approach did not preclude his reaching some philosophical conclusions. He held that there are problems in the claim that God exists.
