Skepticism in Renaissance and Post-Renaissance Thought New Interpretations

This second volume in the Journal of the History of Philosophy book series (JHP Books) is devoted to the resurgence of skepticism in the Renaissance and after. It contains eight original essays by historians of early modern philosophy from Europe and North and South America, with concluding remarks by Richard H. Popkin, who reviews fifty years of scholarship on the history of early modern skepticism and evaluates its present stage. The essays uncover new material relevant to the history of skepticism in the period and propose new interpretations of the nature, role, and influence of skepticism from Montaigne to Berkeley. The contributors discuss such important figures as Michel de Montaigne, Thomas Hobbes, Pierre Bayle, Henry More, René Descartes, Pierre-Daniel Huet, Pierre Gassendi, and George Berkeley.

By indicating a number of new problems brought about by the early modern philosophers’ engagement with and reaction to skepticism, the authors of the important essays in this volume make a major contribution to our understanding of ancient and modern skepticism.

José R. Maia Neto (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) is associate professor of philosophy at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil and the author of Machado de Assis, the Brazilian Pyrrhonian and The Christianization of Pyrrhonism: Scepticism and Faith in Pascal, Kierkegaard, and Shestov.

The late Richard H. Popkin (Los Angeles, CA) was professor emeritus of philosophy at Washington University, St. Louis, adjunct professor of history and philosophy at UCLA, and the author of many books including The History of Scepticism from Savonarola to Bayle and Skeptical Philosophy for Everyone (with Avrum Stroll).