Renaissance Scepticisms (International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, 199)

Even if specific pieces of research (on the sources or on individual authors, such as Pico, Agrippa, Erasmus, Montaigne, Sanches etc.) have given and are still producing significant results on Renaissance scepticism, an overall synthesis comprising the entire period has not been achieved yet. No predetermined idea of that complex historical subject that is Renaissance scepticism underlies this book, and we want to sacrifice the complexity of movements, personalities, tendencies and interpretations to any sort of a priori unity of theme even less. We acknowledge unhesitatingly that we had always thought of “scepticisms” in the plural, and believe that the different contexts (philosophical, religious, cultural) in which these forms grew up must also be taken into account. Furthermore, given the transversal nature and provocative character of the sceptical challenge, this book contains essays also on philosophers who, without being sceptics and sometimes engaged in fighting scepticism, nevertheless took up its challenge. The main authors considered in this book are: Vives, Castellio, Agrippa, Pedro de Valencia, Pico, Sanchez, Montaigne, Charron, Bruno, Bacon, and Campanella. The various essays in the book show the relevance of the philosophical thought of authors little known by the general public and put in new perspective important aspects of the thought of some of the great thinkers of the Renaissance. Renaissance Pyrrhonism / Emmanuel Naya Self-knowledge, scepticism and the quest for a new method : Juan Luis Vives on cognition and the impossibility of perfect knowledge / Lorenzo Casini The issue of Reformation scepticism revisited : what Erasmus and Sebastian Castellio did or did not know / Irena Backus Tutius ignorare quam scire : Cornelius Agrippa and scepticism / Vittoria Perrone Compagni Pedro de Valencia's Academica and scepticism in late Renaissance Spain / John Christian Laursen Inter alias philosophorum gentium sectas, et humani, et mites : Gianfrancesco Pico and the sceptics / Gian Mario Cao Humanus animus nusquam consistit : Doctor Sanchez's diagnosis of the incurable human unrest and ignorance / Agostino Lupoli Montaigne and Plutarch : a scepticism that conquers the mind / Nicola Panichi Charron's academic sceptical wisdom / José R. Maia Neto Giordano Bruno on scepticism / Tristan Dagron The sceptical evaluation of technē and Baconian science / Bernardo J. de Oliveira and José R. Maia Neto Tommaso Campanella : the reappraisal and refutation of scepticism / Gianni Paganini.

Even if specific peces of research (on the sources or on individual authors, such as Pico, Agrippa, Erasmus, Montaigne, Sanchez etc.) have given and are still producing significant results on Renaissance scepticism, an overall synthesis comprising the entire period has not been achieved yet. No predetermined idea of that complex historical subject that is Renaissance scepticism underlies this book, and even less we want to sacrifice the complexity of movements, personalities, tendencies and interpretations to any sort of a priori unity of theme. We acknowledge unhesitatingly that we had always though of scepticisms in the plural, and believe that the different contexts (philosophical, religious, cultural) in which these forms grew up must also be taken into account.