The Skeptical Enlightenment

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.