The skeptical enlightenment : doubt and certainty in the age of reason
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Bibliographic Information
The skeptical enlightenment : doubt and certainty in the age of reason
（Oxford University studies in the Enlightenment, 2019:03）
Liverpool University Press on behalf of Voltaire Foundation, University of Oxford, c2019
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Note
Bibliography: p. 203-226
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Although
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.
Table of Contents
Anton 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 Traite 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
Sebastien Charles, George Berkeley, or the skeptic in spite of himself
Rodrigo Brandao, 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 Encyclopedie
Alan Charles Kors, Political skepticism in Holbach's circle
Summaries
Biographies of contributors
Bibliography
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"