The Skeptical Tradition Around 1800

Author : J. van der Zande,R.H. Popkin
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 468 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2013-03-14
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9789401734653

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The Skeptical Tradition Around 1800 by J. van der Zande,R.H. Popkin Pdf

In the early 1980s the late Charles B. Schmitt and I discussed the fact that so much new research and new interpretations were taking place concerning various areas of modem skepticism that we, as pioneers, ought to organize a conference where these new findings and outlooks could be presented and discussed. Charles and I had both visited the great library at Wolfenbiittel, and were most happy when the Herzog August Bibliothek agreed to host the first conference on the history of skepticism, in 1984 (published as Skepticism from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, ed. R. H. Popkin and Charles B. Schmitt [Wiesbaden, 1987, Wolfenbiitteler For schungen, vol. 35]) Charles and I projected a series of later conferences, the first of which would deal with skepticism and irreligion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Unfortunately, however, Charles died suddenly in 1986, while lecturing in Padua. Subsequent to his death Constance Blackwell, his companion of many years, established the Foundation for Intellectual History to support research and publica tion on topics in the history of ideas that continued Schmitt's interests. One of the first ventures was to arrange and fund the already planned conference on skepticism and irreligion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. After many difficulties and problems, the conference was sponsored and funded by the Foundation for Intel lectual History, one of its first public activities. It was held at the lovely facilities of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in Wassenaar in 1990.

Author : J. van der Zande,R. H. Popkin
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 492 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2014-01-15
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9401734666

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The Skeptical Tradition Around 1800 by J. van der Zande,R. H. Popkin Pdf

Author : John Christian Laursen,Gianni Paganini
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2015-02-26
Category : History
ISBN : 9781442619739

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Skepticism and Political Thought in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries by John Christian Laursen,Gianni Paganini Pdf

In this collection, thirteen distinguished contributors examine the influence of the ancient skeptical philosophy of Pyrrho of Elis and Sextus Empiricus on early modern political thought. Classical skepticism argues that in the absence of certainty one must either suspend judgment and live by habit or act on the basis of probability rather than certainty. In either case, one must reject dogmatic confidence in politics and philosophy. Surveying the use of skepticism in works by Hobbes, Descartes, Hume, Smith, and Kant, among others, the essays in Skepticism and Political Thought in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries demonstrate the pervasive impact of skepticism on the intellectual landscape of early modern Europe. This volume is not just an authoritative account of skepticism’s importance from the Enlightenment to the French Revolution, it is also the basis for understanding skepticism’s continuing political implications.

Author : Nectarios G. Limnatis
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2011-10-20
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781441131430

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The Dimensions of Hegel's Dialectic by Nectarios G. Limnatis Pdf

The Dimensions of Hegel's Dialectic examines the epistemological import of Hegelian dialectic in the widest sense. In modern philosophy, German idealism, Hegel in particular, is said to have made significant innovative steps in redefining the meaning, scope and use of dialectic. Indeed, it is dialectic that makes up the very core of Hegel's position, yet it is an area of his thought that is widely neglected by the available literature despite the increased interest in Hegel's philosophy in recent years. This book brings together an international team of expert contributors in a long-overdue discussion of Hegelian dialectic. Twelve specially commissioned essays address the task of making sense and use of Hegel's dialectic, which is fundamental not only for historical and hermeneutic reasons, but also for pragmatic ones; a satisfactory response to this challenge has the power to clarify Hegel's legacy in the current debate. The essays situate the dialectic in the context of German idealism with a clear-sighted elucidation of the problems that Hegel's dialectic is called upon to solve.

Author : Sébastien Charles,Plínio J. Smith
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 381 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2014-07-08
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9789400748101

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Scepticism in the Eighteenth Century: Enlightenment, Lumières, Aufklärung by Sébastien Charles,Plínio J. Smith Pdf

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. ​

Author : Vicente Raga Rosaleny,Plínio Junqueira Smith
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2020-10-19
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783030553623

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Sceptical Doubt and Disbelief in Modern European Thought by Vicente Raga Rosaleny,Plínio Junqueira Smith Pdf

This volume examines modern scepticism in all main philosophical areas: epistemology, science, metaphysics, morals, and religion. It features sixteen essays that explore its importance for modern thought. The contributions present diverse, mutually enriching interpretations of key thinkers, from Montaigne to Nietzsche. The book includes a look both at the relationship between Montaigne and Pascal and at Montaigne’s criticism of religious rationalism. It turns its attention to an investigation into the links between ancient scepticism and Bacon’s Doctrine of the Idols, as well as into the ancient problem of the criterion in Cartesian philosophy. Next, three essays focus on more general topics, like modern sceptical disturbances, clandestine literature and irreligion. Two essays investigate the role of scepticism in Bayle’s moral thinking and his theory of religious toleration. Hume’s sceptical philosophy is the subject of two papers by distinguished scholars. In addition, many contributors address the presence of scepticism in Kant and in the German Idealism, such as the role of Schulze's scepticism in the works of the young Hegel. The book closes with a paper on Nietzsche and scepticism, and an essay on the role of Popkin’s and Schmitt’s works on modern scepticism. This collection continues along a rich, fruitful path opened by Richard H. Popkin and pursued by many important scholars, like Gianni Paganini, John-Christian Laursen, and José Raimundo Maia Neto. It re-establishes that necessary dialogue between researchers of scepticism from all over the Americas, which began with Popkin, Oswaldo Porchat and Ezequiel de Olaso long ago. This insightful reflection on modern European scepticism will also serve as an important resource in the history of modern philosophy.

Author : Peter K. J. Park
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2013-03-11
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781438446431

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Africa, Asia, and the History of Philosophy by Peter K. J. Park Pdf

Winner of the 2016 Frantz Fanon Prize for Outstanding Book in Caribbean Thought presented by the Caribbean Philosophical Association In this provocative historiography, Peter K. J. Park provides a penetrating account of a crucial period in the development of philosophy as an academic discipline. During these decades, a number of European philosophers influenced by Immanuel Kant began to formulate the history of philosophy as a march of progress from the Greeks to Kant—a genealogy that supplanted existing accounts beginning in Egypt or Western Asia and at a time when European interest in Sanskrit and Persian literature was flourishing. Not without debate, these traditions were ultimately deemed outside the scope of philosophy and relegated to the study of religion. Park uncovers this debate and recounts the development of an exclusionary canon of philosophy in the decades of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. To what extent was this exclusion of Africa and Asia a result of the scientization of philosophy? To what extent was it a result of racism? This book includes the most extensive description available anywhere of Joseph-Marie de Gérando's Histoire comparée des systèmes de philosophie, Friedrich Schlegel's lectures on the history of philosophy, Friedrich Ast's and Thaddä Anselm Rixner's systematic integration of Africa and Asia into the history of philosophy, and the controversy between G. W. F. Hegel and the theologian August Tholuck over "pantheism."

Author : Heiner F. Klemme,Manfred Kuehn
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 880 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2016-06-30
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781474256001

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The Bloomsbury Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers by Heiner F. Klemme,Manfred Kuehn Pdf

The Bloomsbury Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers is a landmark work. Covering one of the most innovative centuries for philosophical investigation, it features more than 650 entries on the eighteenth-century philosophers, theologians, jurists, physicians, scholars, writers, literary critics and historians whose work has had lasting philosophical significance. Alongside well-known German philosophers of that era-Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel-the Dictionary provides rare insights into the lives and minds of lesser-known individuals who influenced the shape of philosophy. Each entry discusses a particular philosopher's life, contributions to the world of thought, and later influences, focusing not only on their most important published writings, but on relevant minor works as well. Bibliographical references to primary and secondary source material are included at the end of entries to encourage further reading, while extensive cross-referencing allows comparisons to be easily made between different thinkers' ideas and practices. For anyone looking to understand more about the century when enlightenment thinking arrived in Germany and established conceits were challenged, The Bloomsbury Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers is a valuable, unparalleled resource.

Author : John H. Zammito
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 589 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780226978598

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Kant, Herder, and the Birth of Anthropology by John H. Zammito Pdf

If Kant had never made the "critical turn" of 1773, would he be worth more than a paragraph in the history of philosophy? Most scholars think not. But this text challenges that view by revealing a precritical Kant who was immensely more influential than the one philosophers think they know.

Author : Harvey Mitchell
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 294 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2012-08-21
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781134002344

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Voltaire's Jews and Modern Jewish Identity by Harvey Mitchell Pdf

Harvey Mitchell’s book argues that a reassessment of Voltaire’s treatment of traditional Judaism will sharpen discussion of the origins of, and responses to, the Enlightenment. His study shows how Voltaire’s nearly total antipathy to Judaism is best understood by stressing his self-regard as the author of an enlightened and rational universal history, which found Judaism’s memory of its past incoherent, and, in addition, failed to meet the criteria of objective history—a project in which he failed. Calling on an array of Jewish and non-Jewish figures to reveal how modern interpretations of Judaism may be traced to the core ideas of the Enlightenment, this book concludes that Voltaire paradoxically helped to foster the ambiguities and uncertainties of Judaism’s future.

Author : Diego Machuca,Baron Reed
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 768 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2018-01-25
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781472511492

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Skepticism: From Antiquity to the Present by Diego Machuca,Baron Reed Pdf

Skepticism: From Antiquity to the Present is an authoritative and up-to-date survey of the entire history of skepticism. Divided chronologically into ancient, medieval, renaissance, modern, and contemporary periods, and featuring 50 specially-commissioned chapters from leading philosophers, this comprehensive volume is the first of its kind. By exploring each of the distinct traditions and providing expert insights, this extensive reference work: - covers major thinkers such as Sextus Empiricus, Cicero, Descartes, Hume, Spinoza, and Wittgenstein. - acknowledges the influence of ancient skeptical traditions on later philosophy and explains why it is still a fertile topic of inquiry among today's philosophers and historians of philosophy. - analyzes various forms of skepticism including Pyrrhonian, Academic, religious, moral, and neo-Pyrrhonian. - addresses issues in contemporary epistemology and indicates new directions of study. Skepticism, a driving force in the history of philosophy, remains at the center of debates in ethics, philosophy of religion, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind. Skepticism: From Antiquity to the Present is an essential point of reference for any student, researcher, or practitioner of philosophy, presenting a systematic and historical survey of this core philosophical topic.

Author : Catalina González Quintero
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2022-02-25
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783030897505

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Academic Skepticism in Hume and Kant by Catalina González Quintero Pdf

This book offers an unprecedented study of the influence of the skepticism of the New Platonic Academy on David Hume’s and Immanuel Kant’s critiques of metaphysics. By demonstrating how the skeptical teachings of the Academy affected these authors’ Enlightened attacks on traditional metaphysics, this book deepens and broadens the burgeoning scholarship on the role that the Ancients schools of skepticism played in the configuration of Modern skeptical outlooks. It bolsters the newfound recognition that we must reconsider the conventional view that the revival of Pyrrhonism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries gave birth to Modern skepticism by incorporating the influence of Academic skepticism in the analysis. Giving a new impetus to this line of research, the author argues that Academic ideas and methods informed Hume’s and Kant’s critique of metaphysics in substantial and thus far unacknowledged ways. Specifically, she demonstrates the centrality of Academic skepticism to Hume’s epistemology and critique of religion through a detailed analysis of his theory of belief in the Treatise and the first Enquiry as well as of its application in the Dialogues concerning Natural Religion. Likewise, her analysis reveals how Kant’s anti-metaphysical stance, developed in the Transcendental Dialectic of the Critique of Pure Reason, contains many skeptical insights of Academic inspiration, bequeathed to him by Hume.

Author : Dane Neufeld
Publisher : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2019-07-11
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780773558250

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Scripture, Skepticism, and the Character of God by Dane Neufeld Pdf

During a period of great religious upheaval, Anglican philosopher and ecclesiastic Henry Longueville Mansel (1820–1871) became famous for his 1858 Bampton Lectures, which sought to defend traditional faith by employing a skeptical philosophy. Understanding Mansel and the passionate debate that surrounded his career provides insight into the current struggle for ancient religions to articulate their traditions in a modern world. In Scripture, Skepticism, and the Character of God Dane Neufeld explores the life and thought of the now forgotten nineteenth-century theologian. Examining the ideological differences between this philosopher and his contemporaries, Neufeld makes a case for the coherence of Mansel's position and traces the vestiges of his thought through the generations that followed him. Mansel found himself at the centre of an explosive debate concerning the Christian scriptures and the moral character of the God they described. Though the rise of science is often credited with provoking a crisis of doubt, shifting ideas about humanity and God were just as central to the spiritual unrest of the nineteenth century. Mansel's central argument, that the entire Bible must be read as a unified witness to the reality of God, provoked disagreement among theologians, churchmen, and free thinkers alike who were uncomfortable with certain aspects of the scriptural portrayal of God's activity and character. Mansel's attempt to reconcile theological skepticism with scripturalism was misunderstood. He was branded a hopeless fideist by the free thinkers and a dangerous skeptic by high, broad, and evangelical churchmen alike. Many of the controversies in contemporary Christianity concern the collision between modern morality and biblical renderings of God. Neufeld argues that Henry Mansel, while a deeply polarizing figure, brought clarity and precision to this debate by exposing what was at stake for Christian belief and biblical interpretation in the Victorian period.

Author : Katja Maria Vogt,Justin Vlasits
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 349 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780190946302

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Epistemology After Sextus Empiricus by Katja Maria Vogt,Justin Vlasits Pdf

"Pyrrhonian skepticism is defined by its commitment to inquiry. The Greek work skepsis means inquiry -- not doubt, or whatever else later forms of skepticism took to be at the core of skeptical philosophy. Sextus Empiricus's writings offer the most sophisticated and detailed version of ancient skepticism in the Pyrrhonian tradition. According to Sextus, skeptics neither claim to 'know nothing' nor hold knowledge to be unattainable. Instead they continue to investigate (Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1.1-4). Being a skeptic, unlike, say, a Stoic or a Platonist, is not a matter of holding a certain view. It is to engage in ongoing inquiry of a certain sort. This makes Pyrrhonism an enigmatic presence in the history of philosophy. It offers no theories to interpret, no proofs in any ordinary sense to excavate. Pyrrhonism is self-consciously open ended, foreseeing epicycles of objections and replies, arguments and counterarguments in perpetuity. Just as enigmatic is its voice for posterity, Sextus Empiricus (fl. 2nd century CE). While a large quantity of his works survives, assessing his place in the history of philosophy and his relevance for contemporary philosophy is challenging, for it is often difficult to decipher where his sources end and he begins. This volume investigates epistemology after Sextus, both ways in which he has influenced the history of philosophy and ways in which he and the Pyrrhonian tradition he represents ought to contribute to contemporary debates. We aim to (re-)instate Sextus as an important philosopher in these discussions in much the same way that Aristotle has been brought into discussions in contemporary ethics, action theory, and metaphysics"--

Author : Christopher Grasso
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 496 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2018-06-04
Category : History
ISBN : 9780190494384

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Skepticism and American Faith by Christopher Grasso Pdf

Between the American Revolution and the Civil War, the dialogue of religious skepticism and faith shaped struggles over the place of religion in politics. It produced different visions of knowledge and education in an "enlightened" society. It fueled social reform in an era of economic transformation, territorial expansion, and social change. Ultimately, as Christopher Grasso argues in this definitive work, it molded the making and eventual unmaking of American nationalism. Religious skepticism has been rendered nearly invisible in American religious history, which often stresses the evangelicalism of the era or the "secularization" said to be happening behind people's backs, or assumes that skepticism was for intellectuals and ordinary people who stayed away from church were merely indifferent. Certainly the efforts of vocal "infidels" or "freethinkers" were dwarfed by the legions conducting religious revivals, creating missions and moral reform societies, distributing Bibles and Christian tracts, and building churches across the land. Even if few Americans publicly challenged Christian truth claims, many more quietly doubted, and religious skepticism touched--and in some cases transformed--many individual lives. Commentators considered religious doubt to be a persistent problem, because they believed that skeptical challenges to the grounds of faith--the Bible, the church, and personal experience--threatened the foundations of American society. Skepticism and American Faith examines the ways that Americans--ministers, merchants, and mystics; physicians, schoolteachers, and feminists; self-help writers, slaveholders, shoemakers, and soldiers--wrestled with faith and doubt as they lived their daily lives and tried to make sense of their world.