The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment

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Release : 2016-10-26
Genre : History
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Book Rating : 538/5 ( reviews)

The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment write by Anton M. Matytsin. This book was released on 2016-10-26. The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Enlightenment confidence in the power of human reason was earned by grappling with the challenge of philosophical skepticism. The ancient Greek philosophy of Pyrrhonian skepticism spread across a wide spectrum of disciplines in the 1600s, casting a shadow over the European learned world. The early modern skeptics expressed doubt concerning the existence of an objective reality independent of human perception. They also questioned long-standing philosophical assumptions and, at times, undermined the foundations of political, moral, and religious authorities. How did eighteenth-century scholars overcome this skeptical crisis of confidence to usher in the so-called Age of Reason? In The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment, Anton Matytsin describes how skeptical rhetoric forced philosophers to formulate the principles and assumptions that they found to be certain or, at the very least, highly probable. In attempting to answer the deep challenge of philosophical skepticism, these thinkers explicitly articulated the rules for attaining true and certain knowledge and defined the boundaries beyond which human understanding could not venture. Matytsin explains the dialectical outcome of the philosophical disputes between the skeptics and their various opponents in France, the Dutch Republic, Switzerland, and Prussia. He shows that these exchanges transformed skepticism by mitigating its arguments while broadening the learned world’s confidence in the capacities of reason by moderating its aspirations. Ultimately, the debates about the powers and limits of human understanding led to the making of a new conception of rationality that privileged practicable reason over speculative reason. Matytsin also complicates common narratives about the Enlightenment by demonstrating that most of the thinkers who defended reason from skeptical critiques were religiously devout. By attempting either to preserve or to reconstruct the foundations of their worldviews and systems of thought, they became important agents of intellectual change and formulated new criteria of doubt and certainty. This complex and engaging book offers a powerful new explanation of how Enlightenment thinkers came to understand the purposes and the boundaries of rational inquiry.

Scepticism in the Eighteenth Century: Enlightenment, Lumières, Aufklärung

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Release : 2014-07-08
Genre : Philosophy
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Book Rating : 108/5 ( reviews)

Scepticism in the Eighteenth Century: Enlightenment, Lumières, Aufklärung - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Scepticism in the Eighteenth Century: Enlightenment, Lumières, Aufklärung write by Sébastien Charles. This book was released on 2014-07-08. Scepticism in the Eighteenth Century: Enlightenment, Lumières, Aufklärung available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The Age of Enlightenment has often been portrayed as a dogmatic period on account of the veritable worship of reason and progress that characterized Eighteenth Century thinkers. Even today the philosophes are considered to have been completely dominated in their thinking by an optimism that leads to dogmatism and ultimately rationalism. However, on closer inspection, such a conception seems untenable, not only after careful study of the impact of scepticism on numerous intellectual domains in the period, but also as a result of a better understanding of the character of the Enlightenment. As Giorgio Tonelli has rightly observed: “the Enlightenment was indeed the Age of Reason but one of the main tasks assigned to reason in that age was to set its own boundaries.” Thus, given the growing number of works devoted to the scepticism of Enlightenment thinkers, historians of philosophy have become increasingly aware of the role played by scepticism in the Eighteenth Century, even in those places once thought to be most given to dogmatism, especially Germany. Nevertheless, the deficiencies of current studies of Enlightenment scepticism are undeniable. In taking up this question in particular, the present volume, which is entirely devoted to the scepticism of the Enlightenment in both its historical and geographical dimensions, seeks to provide readers with a revaluation of the alleged decline of scepticism. At the same time it attempts to resituate the Pyrrhonian heritage within its larger context and to recapture the fundamental issues at stake. The aim is to construct an alternative conception of Enlightenment philosophy, by means of philosophical modernity itself, whose initial stages can be found herein. ​

Scepticism in the Enlightenment

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Release : 2010-12-07
Genre : Philosophy
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Book Rating : 776/5 ( reviews)

Scepticism in the Enlightenment - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Scepticism in the Enlightenment write by R.H. Popkin. This book was released on 2010-12-07. Scepticism in the Enlightenment available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Starting with Richard Popkin's essay of 1963, `Scepticism in the Enlightenment', a new investigation into philosophical scepticism of the period was launched. The late Giorgio Tonelli and the late Ezequiel de Olaso examined in great detail the kinds of scepticism developed during the Enlightenment, and the kind of answer to scepticism that was developed by Leibniz. Their original researches and interpretations are of great value and importance. As a result of their work Popkin modified his original claims, as shown in the last two articles in this volume. The book contains an introduction by Popkin and 10 essays, two of which have never been published before. This collection should be of interest to students and scholars of 18th century thought in England, France and Germany.

Scepticism in the Enlightenment

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Release : 2013-04-17
Genre : Philosophy
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Book Rating : 534/5 ( reviews)

Scepticism in the Enlightenment - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Scepticism in the Enlightenment write by R.H. Popkin. This book was released on 2013-04-17. Scepticism in the Enlightenment available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Starting with Richard Popkin's essay of 1963, `Scepticism in the Enlightenment', a new investigation into philosophical scepticism of the period was launched. The late Giorgio Tonelli and the late Ezequiel de Olaso examined in great detail the kinds of scepticism developed during the Enlightenment, and the kind of answer to scepticism that was developed by Leibniz. Their original researches and interpretations are of great value and importance. As a result of their work Popkin modified his original claims, as shown in the last two articles in this volume. The book contains an introduction by Popkin and 10 essays, two of which have never been published before. This collection should be of interest to students and scholars of 18th century thought in England, France and Germany.

Scepticism from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment

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Release : 1987
Genre : Enlightenment
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Scepticism from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Scepticism from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment write by Richard Henry Popkin. This book was released on 1987. Scepticism from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle.