Pyrrho & the Nude Philosphers

[Bruce Michael]

Hi Friends


Pyrrho was the founder of scepticism, but are the many "Pyrrho-manics" today, true to his original intentions? When Alexander the Great took in India as part of his "world discovery tour", he took with him Pyrrho and his teacher Anaxarchus. Whilst on the subcontinent he hobnobbed with the Gymnosophista, the Naked Philosophers. It is speculated that Buddhism influenced his ideas.The Elder Brothers have stated that the true etymology for "sceptic" is "sceptre". The reason for this is that atop the Maharajah's sceptre, sat a shiny sphere, an orb, in which you could view the entire room.
Thus the name was taken to mean a philosophy which gave an "all round view".

Here are the entries for sceptre and sceptic:

Main Entry: scepterPronunciation: 'sep-terFunction: nounEtymology: Middle English sceptre, from Middle French ceptre, fromLatin sceptrum, from Greek skEptron staff, scepter, from skEptesthaito prop oneself -Date: 14th century1 : a staff or baton borne by a sovereign as an emblem of authority
2 : royal or imperial authority

Main Entry: skeptic Pronunciation: 'skep-tik Function: nounEtymology: Latin or Greek; Latin scepticus, from Greek skeptikos,from skeptikos thoughtful, from skeptesthai to look, consider -- more
at SPY Date: 1587 1 : an adherent or advocate of skepticism 2 : a
person disposed to skepticism especially regarding religion or
religious principles.


-Br.Bruce

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by Bruce Michael

The Elder Brothers have stated that the true etymology for "sceptic" is "sceptre". The reason for this is that atop the Maharajah's sceptre, sat a shiny sphere, an orb, in which you could view the entire room. Thus the name was taken to mean a philosophy which gave an "all round view".

Which, if you think about it, is empirical, as opposed to the Greek philosophical? So one might say that the philosophers have refined the prior concept.

Thomas

[Bruce Michael]

Originally Posted by Thomas

Which, if you think about it, is empirical, as opposed to the Greek philosophical? So one might say that the philosophers have refined the prior concept.

Thomas

Hi Thomas,
Some issues always remain philosophical. From one concept we should be able to extract twelve views. If you take a sphere you can cover it with twelve equi-sized spheres.


-Br.Bruce