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Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Contributors -- General Editor's Preface -- Introduction -- Notes -- References -- 1 Bacon -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Pars destruens: anticipations of nature and the idols of the mind -- 3. Pars construens: Bacon's prescriptions for new natural histories and the inductive natural philosophy -- 4. Concluding remarks -- Notes -- References -- 2 Gassendi and Hobbes -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Gassendi's attacks on the Aristotelians and on Descartes -- 3. Gassendi's middle way -- 4. Gassendi's two criteria -- 5. Certainty and probability -- 6. Hobbes and scepticism -- 7. Hobbes, perception, and 'the modern philosophy' -- 8. Knowledge and scientific knowledge -- Notes -- References -- 3 Descartes -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Dreaming and the embodied self -- 3. Passivity of mind -- 4. Activation and self-discovery -- 5. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 4 Spinoza -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Predecessors -- 3. Adequacy, truth, and clarity and distinctness -- 4. Kinds of knowledge -- 5. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 5 Malebranche -- 1. Introduction: was Malebranche a rationalist metaphysician? -- 2. Malebranche and Hume -- 3. The axioms of metaphysics -- 4. Malebranche's positive metaphysics 1: God and the soul -- 5. Malebranche's positive metaphysics 2: the world of bodies -- 6. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 6 Leibniz -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Leibniz's theory of knowledge: the basics -- 3. Leibniz on substance -- 4. Determinism -- 5. Leibniz's 'rationalist empiricism' -- 6. Representation and anti-materialism -- 7. Knowledge and truth -- 8. Logic and the question of foundationalism -- 9. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 7 Locke -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Background -- 3. Locke on principles -- 4. Locke on demonstration -- 5. Locke on the sciences -- Notes -- References -- 8 Hume.

This book of original papers offers fresh approaches to skepticism–a topic in philosophy with a noble two-millennia history; and one that even inaugurated modern philosophy in Descartes's Meditations . Particularly with the rise of scientific forms or models of philosophy, skepticism today is often treated as a dead-end not worthy of serious reflection. In contrast to this prevailing attitude, the skepticisms discussed in these pages are alive . Here are assembled leading thinkers who claim at least some forms of skepticism to be true (e.g. skepticism about ethics or metaphysics) or insightful enough to be a lasting source of philosophical enlightenment and inspiration