Surveying the use of skepticism in works by Hobbes, Descartes, Hume, Smith, and Kant, among others, these essays demonstrate the pervasive impact of skepticism on the intellectual landscape of early modern Europe.

Introduction (John Christian Laursen and Gianni Paganini)

1. Neither Philosophy Nor Politics? The Ancient Pyrrhonian Approach to Everday Life (Emidio Spinelli)

2. La Mothe Le Vayer and Political Skepticism (Daniel Brunstetter)

3. Hobbes and the French Skeptics (Gianni Paganini)

4. Questionnnements sceptiques et politiques de la fable: les “autres mondes” du libertinage erudite (Jean-Charles Darmon)

5. Obeying the Laws and Customs of the Country: Living in Disorder and Barbarity. The Powerlessness of Political Skepticism According to the Discours sceptiques of Samuel Sorbière (Sylvia Giocanti)

6. Bernard Mandeville’s Skeptical Political Philosophy (Rui Romão)

7. David Hume: Skepticism in Politics? (Andrew Sabl)

8. Denis Diderot and the Politics of Materialist Skepticism (Whitney Mannies)

9. Rousseau: Philosophical and Religious Skepticism and Political Dogmatism (María José Villaverde)

10. Skepticism and Political Economy (Pierre Force)

11. Can a Skeptic be a Reformer? Skepticism in Morals and Politics during the Enlightenment: the Case of Voltaire (Rodrigo Brandão)

12. From General Skepticism to Complete Dogmatism: Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville (Sébastien Charles)

13. Karl Friedrich Stäudlin’s Diagnosis of the Political Effects of Skepticism in Late 18th Century Germany (John Christian Laursen)

Edited by John Christian Laursen and Gianni Paganini