Timon’s three questions
Here is an enlightening exercise in practical philosophy
Some times it’s a good idea to pause and reflect on the big picture. You know, something along the lines of Socrates’s famous “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Take literally, the Socratic injunction may be excessive, but I would argue that the occasionally examined life is lived better.
One among many ways to carry out such examination is to consider and answer three questions attributed to Timon of Phlius, who lived between 325–320 and 235–230 BCE (and who is not to be confused with Timon of Athens, the historical figure that inspired the homonymous play by Shakespeare).
Timon was a student of Pyrrho of Elis, the founder of one of the two branches of ancient skepticism, aptly known as Pyrrhonism. The other branch was Academic Skepticism, which was adopted, among others, by Carneades and Cicero.
Pyrrho didn’t write anything. On purpose. The same annoying attitude shared by Socrates, Carneades, and Epictetus, among others. Timon, by contrast, wrote poems, tragedies, comedies, satiric pieces, and a number of other things. Most of these writings unfortunately survive only in fragments quoted by other authors. The uncertainty is so great that perhaps Pyrrhonism should actually be called Timonism, since some scholars think…
