Aenesidemus’ revival of radical doubt inspired poetic modes that dwell in the surface of things—where truth is not hidden beneath, but revealed in the play of light, sensation, and the ever-shifting moment.

Aenesidemus revived Pyrrhonian skepticism in the first century BCE, countering dogmatic schools like Stoicism and Epicureanism by arguing that appearances (phainomena) are the only reliable basis for judgment, not underlying realities; his method of equipollence—balancing opposing arguments to suspend judgment—became foundational for later skeptics like Sextus Empiricus, and poets influenced by skepticism, such as Timon of Phlius, adopted his tone of ironic detachment to question poetic certainty and metaphysical claims in Hellenistic verse.