Among the fragments of early Pyrrhonist texts written by Timon of Phlius, the student of Pyrrho who recorded Pyrrho’s thoughts, is a concise summary of Pyrrhonism, known in the scholarly literature as the “Aristocles Passage.” It comes down to us from the early Christian philosopher, Eusebius, who quoted the Aristotelian philosopher, Aristocles, who was, in turn, quoting Timon quoting Pyrrho summarizing his philosophy.
About a decade ago, Christopher Beckwith, a philologist specializing in the languages of the ancient Silk Road, pointed out in his book, Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia, that part of this summary appears to be a translation into ancient Greek of the Buddhist Three Marks of Existence, giving the first proof that the similarities between Pyrrhonism and Buddhism are not just a coincidence, but that Pyrrho was directly influenced by the Buddhist thought that he encountered during his year and a half stay in Taxila, India. Beckwith gives the details of his analysis in the first chapter of his book, which is available free online.
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