The Skeptical Enlightenment

Doubt and Certainty in the Age of Reason

Edited by Jeffrey D. Burson and Anton M. Matytsin

Voltaire Foundation in association with Liverpool University Press

Oxford University Studies in The Enlightenment

An exciting and fresh perspective on the enduring importance of Skepticism to the 'Age of Reason'
A compelling, multidisciplinary collection of essays by leading scholars that challenges our understanding of the eighteenth-century as simply an era of triumphant reason
An original captivating work that shows how pervasive doubt and lingering anxiety about the limits of human understanding were at the very heart of the early Enlightenment
This fascinating series of essays by an international array of historians and philosophers underscores the significance of lesser-known clergy and legal scholars (Claude Buffier, Pierre-Daniel Huet, and Georg Heber), and unseats regnant understandings of more well-known figures (Pierre Bayle, Voltaire, George Berkeley, Baron d'Holbach, and David Hume) by insisting that pervasive and enduring sceptical crisis was a vital and constructive part of the early Enlightenment
This book tellingly reveals how the seemingly boundless confidence of eighteenth-century figures in the transformative capacity of human understanding actually masked profound anxiety about the circumscribed limits of the mind's powers

The Skeptical Enlightenment

Doubt and Certainty in the Age of Reason

Edited by Jeffrey D. Burson and Anton M. Matytsin

Voltaire Foundation in association with Liverpool University Press

Oxford University Studies in The Enlightenment

Description

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.

The Skeptical Enlightenment

Doubt and Certainty in the Age of Reason

Edited by Jeffrey D. Burson and Anton M. Matytsin

Voltaire Foundation in association with Liverpool University Press

Oxford University Studies in The Enlightenment

Author Information

Jeffrey D. Burson is Associate Professor of French History and the Enlightenment at Georgia Southern University. He is the author of 'The Rise and Fall of Theological Enlightenment: Jean-Martin de Prades and Ideological Polarization in Eighteenth-Century France' (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010), and 'The Culture of Enlightening and the Entangled Life of Abbé Claude Yvon' (University of Notre Dame Press, 2019), in addition to numerous articles and chapters in edited collections of essays. He is co-editor, with Ulrich L. Lehner, of 'Enlightenment and Catholicism in Europe: A Transnational History' (University of Notre Dame Press, 2014) and, with Jonathan Wright, of 'The Jesuit Suppression in Global Context: Causes, Events, and Consequences' (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
Anton M. Matytsin is Assistant Professor of European History at Kenyon College. He is the author of 'The Specter of Skepticism in the Age of Enlightenment' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016) and co-editor, with Dan Edelstein, of 'Let There Be Enlightenment: The Religious and Mystical Sources of Rationality' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018).

The Skeptical Enlightenment

Doubt and Certainty in the Age of Reason

Edited by Jeffrey D. Burson and Anton M. Matytsin

Voltaire Foundation in association with Liverpool University Press

Oxford University Studies in The Enlightenment

Reviews and Awards

"All in all, this is a volume which should be read by every scholar of the eighteenth century, of the history of ideas, and of the history of religion." Dorinda Outram, H-France Review

"The editors are to be congratulated for bringing to fruition this volume of essays, and for making a clear and convincing argument for the importance of skepticism in the Enlightenment." Dorinda Outram, H-France Review