Epoché

Suspension of judgement: in ancient scepticism, withholding belief; in Husserl's phenomenology, bracketing the world's existence.

Also: epoche, epochē, suspension of judgement, bracketing, phenomenological reduction

What it means

Epoché is the ancient Greek term for suspending judgement. For ancient Pyrrhonian sceptics, as reported by Sextus Empiricus, setting equally strong arguments against each other leads to suspension of judgement, which in turn brings tranquillity (ataraxia). Arcesilaus, head of Plato's Academy, argued that without a criterion of truth one should suspend judgement about everything; critics replied that a life without belief would be unliveable. Edmund Husserl later gave the term a new use. His phenomenological epoché sets aside our everyday assumption that the world exists, not to doubt or deny it, but to study how things appear to consciousness. Ideas I (1913) marks his explicit turn to the transcendental philosophy that the epoché opens onto.

The questions it belongs to

• 2.4 SkepticismHow do you know you are not being deceived about everything?
• 2.4.1 Global vs Local SkepticismCan you doubt everything, or only something?

Thinkers

• Pyrrho
• Arcesilaus
• Sextus Empiricus
• Edmund Husserl

Traditions

• Greek & Roman
• Continental

To read

• Logical Investigations — Edmund Husserl
• Outlines of Pyrrhonism — Sextus Empiricus
• The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology — Edmund Husserl

Sources and further reading

• Ancient Skepticism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• Edmund Husserl (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• Intentionality (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Written by the Coordinates of Thought editors and checked against the sources above on 29 October 2026. Not peer-reviewed. How we write and check.

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