The Skeptical Tradition Around 1800: Skepticism in Philosophy, Science, and Society (International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, 155)

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. Front Matter....Pages i-xix Front Matter....Pages 1-1 The Existence of External Objects in Hume’s Treatise: Realism, Skepticism, and the Task of Philosophy....Pages 3-13 Hume and Skepticism in Late Eighteenth-Century France....Pages 15-29 Brissot and Condorcet: Skeptical Philosophers....Pages 31-39 Mathematical Skepticism: A Sketch with Historian in Foreground....Pages 41-60 Commentary: Pascal, Skepticism, and the French Enlightenment....Pages 61-65 Front Matter....Pages 67-67 The Moderate Skepticism of German Popular Philosophy....Pages 69-80 Skepticism: Philosophical Disease or Cure?....Pages 81-100 Kant’s Responses to Skepticism....Pages 101-109 Commentary: Skepticism in Eighteenth-Century German Philosophy....Pages 111-115 Front Matter....Pages 117-117 Putting Doubt in its Place: Karl Leonhard Reinhold on the Relationship between Philosophical Skepticism and Transcendental Idealism....Pages 119-132 Polemic and Dogmatism: The Two Faces of Skepticism in Aenesidemus-Schulze....Pages 133-141 Skepticism and Methodological Monism: Aenesidemus-Schulze Versus Arcesilaus-Erhard....Pages 143-158 Commentary: Reading Schulze’s Aenesidemus ....Pages 159-172 Front Matter....Pages 173-173 “Baconianism” in Revolutionary Germany: Humboldt’s “Great Instauration”....Pages 175-186 A Scientist Responds to His Skeptical Crisis: Laplace’s Philosophy of Science....Pages 187-201 Analogy, Comparison, and Active Living Forces: Late Enlightenment Responses to the Skeptical Critique of Causal Analysis....Pages 203-211 Commentary....Pages 213-218 Front Matter....Pages 219-219 The Practical Value of Hume’s Mitigated Skepticism....Pages 221-234 Burke and the Religious Sources of Skeptical Conservatism....Pages 235-259 Tocqueville’s Flight from Doubt and His Search for Certainty: Skepticism in a Democratic Age....Pages 261-279 Front Matter....Pages 281-281 What Do You Think of Smallpox Inoculation? A Crucial Question in the Eighteenth Century, Not Only for Physicians....Pages 283-296 Skepticism and the Discourse about Suicide in the Eighteenth Century: Traces of a Philosophical Concept....Pages 297-313 The Debate about Capital Punishment and Skepticism in Late Enlightenment Germany....Pages 315-328 Commentary: Skepticism and Social Issues....Pages 329-336 Front Matter....Pages 337-337 Some Thoughts about Stäudlin’s “History and Spirit of Skepticism”....Pages 339-342 Skepticism as a Sect, Skepticism as a Philosophical Stance: Johann Jakob Brucker Versus Carl Friedrich Stäudlin....Pages 343-363 Skepticism and the History of Moral Philosophy: The Case of Carl Friedrich Stäudlin....Pages 365-378 Commentary: Stäudlin and the Historiography of Philosophy....Pages 379-384 Back Matter....Pages 385-468

This ground-breaking collection of essays puts an end to the common notion that Kant solved the problem of skepticism. Commemorating C.F. Stäudlin, the first historian of skepticism (1794), scholars of various disciplines in unique collaboration disclose the continuing importance of the sceptical tradition in Germany, France, and Britain. Their wide-ranging studies cover Hume, Kant, and the philosophical situation in Germany both before and after Kant, particularly the all-but-forgotten Stäudlin himself. But they also investigate the role of skepticism in the political thought of Burke and Tocqueville, in de the development of mathematical thought (Montucla) and in science (Alexander von Humboldt, Laplace, and others), and in the context of such social issues as smallpox inoculation, suicide, and capital punishment. The collection fills a major gap in the history of skepticism, emphasizing the significance of skepticism for modern life and philosophy. It is of special interest to philosophers, historians, and political scientists.

This ground-breaking collection of essays puts an end to the common notion that Kant solved the problem of skepticism. Commemorating C.F. Stäudlin, the first historian of skepticism (1794), scholars of various disciplines in unique collaboration disclose the continuing importance of the sceptical tradition in Germany, France, and Britain. Their wide-ranging studies cover Hume, Kant, and the philosophical situation in Germany both before and after Kant, particularly the all-but-forgotten Stäudlin himself. But they also investigate the role of skepticism in the political thought of Burke and Tocqueville, in de the development of mathematical thought (Montucla) and in science (Alexander von Humboldt, Laplace, and others), and in the context of such social issues as smallpox inoculation, suicide, and capital punishment. The collection fills a major gap in the history of skepticism, emphasizing the significance of skepticism for modern life and philosophy. It is of special interest to philosophers, historians, and political scientists