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Skepticism in Early Modern Thought

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Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences

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Definition

An examination of early modern skepticism

Introduction

Since the publication of the History of Skepticism by Richard H. Popkin (2003, see Popkin 2008 and Paganini 2003), it has been common to date the revival of skepticism from the reemergence of the work of Sextus Empiricus in modern European culture (see Popkin and Maia Neto 2004). While Academic skepticism’s fundamental sources – Cicero’s Academica and Augustine’s Contra Academicos – were always, including during the Middle Ages, at people’s disposal and known in the West, the few manuscripts of Sextus Empiricus’ works that were available in European libraries apparently did not leave significant traces before the sixteenth century (see Floridi 2002; Paganini and Maia Neto 2009). Wider firsthand knowledge and stronger impact of Sextus Empiricus’ work on Western scholars became possible only later, by Henri Estienne’s (Pyrrhoniae hypotyposes, 1562) and Gentian Hervet’s (Adversus mathematicos, 1569) Latin translations,...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Humanities, University of Eastern Piedmont & Research Centre Accademia dei Lincei (Rome), Vercelli, Italy

    Gianni Paganini

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  1. Gianni Paganini
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Correspondence to Gianni Paganini .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Dana Jalobeanu

  2. Dept. of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University Dept. Philosophy & Moral Sci, Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium

    Charles T. Wolfe

Section Editor information

  1. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Dana Jalobeanu

  2. Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Sarton Centre for History of Science, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Charles T. Wolfe

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Paganini, G. (2020). Skepticism in Early Modern Thought. In: Jalobeanu, D., Wolfe, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_448-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_448-1

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