Greek Buddha

Pyrrho of Elis accompanied Alexander the Great to Central Asia and India during the Greek invasion and conquest of the Persian Empire in 334-324 BC. There, he encountered early Buddhist masters. Greek Buddha illustrates how their Early Buddhism shaped the philosophy of Pyrrho, the renowned founder of Pyrrhonian scepticism in ancient Greece.

Christopher I. Beckwith traces the origins of a significant tradition in Western philosophy to Gandhara, a region in Central Asia and northwestern India. He systematically examines the teachings and practices of Pyrrho and Early Buddhism, including those preserved in testimonies about Pyrrho, the report on Indian philosophy created two decades later by the Seleucid ambassador Megasthenes, the first-person edicts by the Indian king Devanampriya Priyadarsi referencing a popular variant of the Dharma in the early third century BC, and Taoist echoes of Gautama's Dharma in Warring States China.

Beckwith demonstrates how the teachings of Pyrrho align closely with those of the Buddha Sakyamuni, the "Scythian Sage." In the process, he identifies eight distinct philosophical schools in ancient northwestern India and Central Asia, including Early Zoroastrianism, Early Brahmanism, and several forms of Early Buddhism. He then reveals the influence of Pyrrho's brand of scepticism on the evolution of Western thought, initially in Antiquity and later during the Enlightenment, particularly on the great philosopher and self-proclaimed Pyrrhonian, David Hume.

Greek Buddha shows that, through Pyrrho, Early Buddhist thought had a profound impact on Western philosophy.