Overview
- First systematic account of Charron's influence among major French Philosophers
- First book to show that Academic skepticism was more relevant than Pyrrhonism in Early Modern Philosophy
- Provides new research for early modern scholars in philosophy, French literature and religion
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées (ARCH, volume 215)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book is the first systematic account of Pierre Charron’s influence among the major French philosophers in the period (1601-1662). It shows that Charron’s Wisdom was one of the main sources of inspiration of Pierre Gassendi’s first published book, the Exercitationes adversus aristoteleos. It sheds new light on La Mothe Le Vayer, who is usually viewed as a major free thinker. By showing that he was a follower of Charron, La Mothe emerges neither as a skeptical apologist nor as a disguised libertine, as combatting superstition but not as irreligious. The book shows the close presence of Charron in the preambles of Descartes’ philosophy and that the cogito is mainly based on the moral Academic self-assurance of Charron’s wise man. This interpretation reverses the standard view of Descartes’ relation to skepticism. Once this skepticism is recognized to be Charron’s Academic one, it is seen not as the target but as the source of the cogito. Pascal is the last major philosopher for whom Charron’s wisdom is crucially relevant. Montaigne and Descartes influenced, respectively, Pascal’s view of the Pyrrhonian skeptic and of the skeptical main arguments. The book shows that Charron’s Academic skeptical wise man is one of the main targets of his projected apology for Christianity, since he considered him as a threat and counter-example of the kind of Christian view of human beings he believed. By restoring the historical philosophical relevance of Charron in early modern philosophy and arguing for the relevance of Academic skepticism in the period, this book opens a new research program to early modern scholars and will be valuable for those interested in the history of philosophy, French literature and religion.
Reviews
“In recent scholarship, this is the first effort at a more systematic consideration of aspects of Charron’s influence. … The work offers many interesting textual comparisons and interpretative hypotheses in a concise way, well-informed by recent scholarship. It provides good support for the more general claim that Academic skepticism … .” (Luiz Eva, Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. 55 (1), January, 2017)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Academic Skepticism in Seventeenth-Century French Philosophy
Book Subtitle: The Charronian Legacy 1601-1662
Authors: José R. Maia Neto
Series Title: International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07359-0
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-07358-3Published: 29 July 2014
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-38188-6Published: 17 September 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-07359-0Published: 10 July 2014
Series ISSN: 0066-6610
Series E-ISSN: 2215-0307
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 165
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Modern Philosophy, Religious Studies, general, History of Philosophy