The skeptical Enlightenment doubt and certainty in the age of reason Doubt and certainty in the age of reason Burson, Jeffrey D. editor. Matytsin, Anton M. 1985- editor. text bibliography History. enk 2019 2019 monographic eng print vii, 235 pages ; 24 cm. "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." -- 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. edited by Jeffrey D. Burson and Anton M. Matytsin. Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-226) and index. Enlightenment Skepticism History 18th century Enlightenment Skepticism 1700-1799 fast PQ2105 .B464 2019 v.3 190.9033 Oxford University studies in the Enlightenment ; 2019:03 1786941945 9781786941947 2018493663 YDX 181004 20190718163429.0 in00004068013 eng