Doug, I’m afraid you haven’t succeeded in triggering aphasia in me.

You keep saying that Pyrrhonism has plenty of ways to criticize a position, but you also keep going back to tradition, customs, gut feelings, and the like. Unless you are using the word “criticism” in a peculiar fashion, I don’t see how much criticism can possibly come from those quarters.

Your point about traditions arising at one point, and therefore not existing earlier, is a nice rhetorical stroke, but one would want to say “duh.” Obviously traditions don’t go back to Adam and Eve. The point is that once established they persist, too often with negative results. Anyone who is *now* acting on tradition and customs isn’t going back to their beginnings, it just (uncritically) adopts the one he grew up with. Hence the problem.

As for ethical progress, are you seriously arguing that the abolition of slavery, women’s rights, gay rights, etc. are not clear examples of it? If so, I’ll count that as a huge strike against Pyrrhonism.

As for what Sextus says, good luck getting rid of distress entirely. I’m content with reducing it.