Description
Book SynopsisAlthough many historical narratives often describe the eighteenth century as an unalloyed ‘Age of Reason’, Enlightenment thinkers continued to grapple with the challenges posed by the revival and spread of philosophical skepticism. The imperative to overcome doubt and uncertainty informed some of the most innovative characteristics of eighteenth-century intellectual culture, including not only debates about epistemology and metaphysics but also matters of jurisprudence, theology, history, moral philosophy, and politics. Thinkers of this period debated about, established, and productively worked for progress within the parameters of the increasingly circumscribed boundaries of human reason. No longer considered innate and consistently perfect, reason instead became conceived as a faculty that was inherently fallible, limited by personal experiences, and in need of improvement throughout the course of any individual’s life.
In its depiction of a complicated, variegated, and diverse Enlightenment culture, this volume examines the process by which philosophical skepticism was challenged and gradually tamed to bring about an anxious confidence in the powers of human understanding. The various contributions collectively demonstrate that philosophical skepticism, and not simply unshakable confidence in the powers of reason or the optimistic assumption about inevitable human improvement, was, in fact, the crucible of the Enlightenment process itself.
Trade Review'All in all, this is a volume which should be read by every scholar of the eighteenth century, of the history of ideas, and of the history of religion.'
'The editors are to be congratulated for bringing to fruition this volume of essays, and for making a clear and convincing argument for the importance of skepticism in the Enlightenment.'
Dorinda Outram,
H-France Review * H-France Review *
'The new wave of the scholarship on skepticism that emerges from this [book] is really impressive and will mark a cornerstone for the study of eighteenth-century philosophy.'
Gianni Paganini,
Erudition and the Republic of LettersTable of ContentsAnton M. Matytsin and Jeffrey D. Burson, Introduction: from an “age Of skepticism” to an “age Of reason”
Jeffrey D. Burson, Healing the skeptical crisis and rectifying Cartesianisms: the notion of the Jesuit synthesis revisited
Elena Rapetti, “A man who sticks only to his own sentiments”: Pierre-Daniel Huet’s Traité philosophique de la foiblesse de l’esprit humain
Martin Mulsow and John Christian Laursen, Georg Michael Heber on legal and (possibly) religious skepticism in early Enlightenment Germany
Sébastien Charles, George Berkeley, or the skeptic in spite of himself
Rodrigo Brandão, Voltaire and modern skeptical doubt
John P. Wright, Skepticism and incomprehensibility in Bayle and Hume
Anton M. Matytsin, Taming thought with practice: philosophical skepticism in the Encyclopédie
Alan Charles Kors, Political skepticism in Holbach’s circle
Summaries
Biographies of contributors
Bibliography
Index
