The skeptical Enlightenment : doubt and certainty in the age of reason / edited by Jeffrey D. Burson and Anton M. Matytsin.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Burson, Jeffrey D., editor.

Matytsin, Anton M., 1985- editor.

Series:

Oxford University studies in the Enlightenment ; 0435-2866 2019:03.

Oxford University studies in the Enlightenment, 0435-2866 ; 2019:03

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Enlightenment.

Skepticism--History--18th century.

Skepticism.

History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

vii, 235 pages ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Doubt and certainty in the age of reason

Place of Publication:

[Liverpool, UK] : Liverpool University Press on behalf of Voltaire Foundation, [2019]

Summary:

"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." -- From publisher's website.

Contents:

Introduction: from an "age of skepticism" to an "age of reason" / Anton M. Matytsin and Jeffrey D. Burson

Healing the skeptical crisis and rectifying Cartesianisms: the notion of the Jesuit synthesis revisited / Jeffrey D. Burson

"A man who sticks only to his own sentiments": Pierre-Daniel Huet's Traité philosophique de la foiblesse de l'esprit humain / Elena Rapetti

Georg Michael Heber on legal and (possibly) religious skepticism in early Enlightenment Germany / Martin Mulsow and John Christian Laursen

George Berkeley, or the skeptic in spite of himself / Sébastien Charles

Voltaire and modern skeptical doubt / Rodrigo Brandão

Skepticism and incomprehensibility in Bayle and Hume / John P. Wright

Taming thought with practice: philosophical skepticism in the Encyclopédie / Anton M. Matytsin

Political skepticism in Holbach's circle / Alan Charles Kors

Summaries

Biographies of contributors

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-226) and index.

ISBN:

1786941945

9781786941947

OCLC:

1055447372