The Skeptical Tradition Around 1800: Skepticism in Philosophy, Science, and Society

461 Pages·1998·18.35 MB·English

by  Marina Frasca-Spada (auth.)

THE SKEPTICAL TRADITION AROUND 1800
ARCHIVES INTERNATIONALES D'HISTOIRE DES IDEES
INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
155
THE SKEPTICAL TRADITION
AROUND 1800
Skepticism in Philosophy, Science, and Society
edited by
JOHAN VAN DER ZANDE
AND RICHARD H. POPKIN
Founding Directors:
P.Dibont (Paris) and R.H. Popkin (Washington University, St. Louis & UCLA)
Director:
Sarah Hutton (The University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom)
Co-Editors: J.E. Force (Lexington); C. Laursen (Riverside)
Editorial Board: J.F. Battail (Paris); F. Duchesneau (Montreal); A, Gabbey (New York); T. Gregory
(Rome); J.D. North (Groningen); M.J. Petry (Rotterdam); J. Popkin (Lexington);
Th. Verbeek (Utrecht)
Advisory Editorial Board: J. Aubin (Paris); B. Copenhaver (Los Angeles); A. Crombie (Oxford);
H. Gadamer (Heidelberg); H. Gouhier (Paris); K. Hanada (Hokkaido University); W. Kirsop
(Melbourne); P.O. Kristeller (Columbia University); E. Labrousse (Paris); A. Lossky (Los Angeles);
J. Malarczyk (Lublin); J. Orcibal (Paris); W. ROd (Miinchen); G. Rousseau (Los Angeles);
H. Rowen (Rutgers University, N.J.); J.P. Schobinger (Ziirich); J. Tans (Groningen)
THE SKEPTICAL TRADITION
AROUND 1800
Skepticism in Philosophy, Science, and Society
edited by
JOHAN VAN DER ZANDE
University of California,
Berkeley, U.S.A.
and
RICHARD H. POPKIN
Washington University, St. Louis
and
University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-90-481-4946-9 ISBN 978-94-017-3465-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-3465-3
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1998
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ..................................... ix
Preface ........................................... xi
Richard H. Popkin
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
lohan van der Zande
I. FRENCH AND SCOTTISH SKEPTICISM
The Existence of External Objects in Hume's Treatise: Realism,
Skepticism, and the Task of Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Marina Frasca-Spada
Hume and Skepticism in Late Eighteenth-Century France ............. 15
Laurence L. Bongie
Brissot and Condorcet: Skeptical Philosophers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Richard H. Popkin
Mathematical Skepticism: A Sketch with Historian in Foreground ........ 41
Luciano Floridi
Commentary: Pascal, Skepticism, and the French Enlightenment ........ 61
lose R. Maia Neto
II. GERMAN SKEPTICISM UP TO KANT
The Moderate Skepticism of German Popular Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
lohan van der Zande
Skepticism: Philosophical Disease or Cure? ..................... 81
Manfred Kuehn
Kant's Responses to Skepticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 101
Rudolf A. Makkreel
Commentary: Skepticism in Eighteenth-Century German Philosophy 111
John Christian Laursen
v
vi
III. GERMAN SKEPTICISM AFTER KANT
Putting Doubt in Its Place: Karl Leonhard Reinhold on the Relationship
between Philosophical Skepticism and Transcendental Idealism ........ 119
Daniel Breazeale
Polemic and Dogmatism: The Two Faces of Skepticism
in Aenesidemus-Schulze ................................ 133
Thomas Grundmann
Skepticism and Methodological Monism: Aenesidemus-Schulze
versus Arcesilaus-Erhard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 143
Marcelo Stamm
Commentary: Reading Schulze's Aenesidemus ................... 159
Achim Engstler
IV. SCIENCE AND SKEPTICISM
"Baconianism" in Revolutionary Germany: Humboldt's
"Great Instauration" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 175
Michael Dettelbach
A Scientist Responds to his Skeptical Crisis: Laplace's Philosophy
of Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 187
Roger Hahn
Analogy, Comparison, and Active Living Forces: Late Enlightenment
Responses to the Skeptical Critique of Causal Analysis ............. 203
Peter H. Reill
Commentary ....................................... 213
William Clark
V. SKEPTICISM AND POLITICAL THEORIES
The Practical Value of Hume's Mitigated Skepticism ................. 221
Dario Castiglione
Burke and the Religious Sources of Skeptical Conservatism .......... 235
lain Hampsher-Monk
Tocqueville's Flight from Doubt and His Search for Certainty:
Skepticism in a Democratic Age ........................... 261
Harvey Mitchell
vii
VI. SKEPTICISM AND SOCIAL ISSUES
What Do You Think of Smallpox Inoculation? A Crucial Question
in the Eighteenth Century, Not Only for Physicians ............... 283
Peter Albrecht
Skepticism and the Discourse about Suicide in the Eighteenth Century:
Traces of a Philosophical Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Vera Lind
The Debate about Capital Punishment and Skepticism in Late
Enlightenment Germany ................................ 315
Otto Ulbricht
Commentary: Skepticism and Social Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Joachim Whaley
VII. CARL FRIEDRICH STAUDLIN IN CONTEXT
Some Thoughts about Staudlin's History and Spirit of Skepticism . . . . . .. 339
Richard Popkin
Skepticism as a Sect, Skepticism as a Philosophical Stance:
Johann Jakob Brucker versus Carl Friedrich Staudlin .............. 343
Constance W. T. Blackwell
Skepticism and the History of Moral Philosophy: The Case
of Carl Friedrich Staudlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
John Christian Laursen
Commentary: Staudlin and the Historiography of Philosophy. . . . . . . . .. 379
Ulrich Johannes Schneider
VIII. SKEPTICISM BmLIOGRAPHY, 1989-1991:
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Jose R. Maia Neto
Bibliography, 1989-91 .................................. 393
Bibliography Index ................................... 455
Index of Names ..................................... 457
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This volume contains the Proceedings of the Conference on Skepticism in the Late
Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century, held in Leipzig and Gattingen in July
1995. The conference was sponsored by The Foundation for Intellectual History
(London), the UCLA Center for Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Studies, the
Volkswagen Foundation, and the Zentrum fUr Hahere Studien der Universitiit
Leipzig. The editors thank the University of Leipzig, in particular Matthias Middell
of the Zentrum, and the Max-Planck-Institut fUr Geschichte in Gattingen for their
hospitality. We would like to express our gratitude to the organizers of the
conference, Hartmut Lehmann, Director, Max-Planck-Institut fUr Geschichte,
Richard H. Popkin, Peter Reill, Director, UCLA Center for Seventeenth and
Eighteenth-Century Studies, but especially to Hans BOdeker, Senior Research Fellow
at the Max-Planck-Institut. We also thank the staff of the UCLA Center, in partic
ular its Managing Editor, Marina Romani, for her very efficient and courteous help.
ix
PREFACE
In the early 1980s the late Charles B. Schmitt and I discussed the fact that so much
new research and new interpretations were taking place concerning various areas of
modem skepticism that we, as pioneers, ought to organize a conference where these
new findings and outlooks could be presented and discussed. Charles and I had both
visited the great library at Wolfenbiittel, and were most happy when the Herzog
August Bibliothek agreed to host the first conference on the history of skepticism,
in 1984 (published as Skepticism from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, ed.
R.H. Popkin and Charles B. Schmitt [Wiesbaden, 1987, Wolfenbiitteler For
schungen, vol. 35])
Charles and I projected a series of later conferences, the first of which would
deal with skepticism and irreligion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Unfortunately, however, Charles died suddenly in 1986, while lecturing in Padua.
Subsequent to his death Constance Blackwell, his companion of many years,
established the Foundation for Intellectual History to support research and publica
tion on topics in the history of ideas that continued Schmitt's interests. One of the
first ventures was to arrange and fund the already planned conference on skepticism
and irreligion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. After many difficulties
and problems, the conference was sponsored and funded by the Foundation for Intel
lectual History, one of its first public activities. It was held at the lovely facilities
of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in Wassenaar in 1990. Scholars
were brought together from North and South America as well as many European
countries. They were able to discuss and debate various topics formally and inform
ally over four days. The results were published as Skepticism and Irreligion in the
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, ed. R.H. Popkin and Arjo Vanderjagt
(Leiden, 1993).
The success of these first two conferences about themes in the history of modem
skepticism led Constance Blackwell and I to consider a subsequent conference
dealing with skepticism at the end of the eighteenth century. This seemed to us to
be an area where, traditionally, philosophers had seen skepticism only in terms of
Hume's views and Kant's reaction to them. Few were concerned with the kinds of
skepticism that emerged from the French Enlightenment. And few knew or cared
about skepticism in Germany before, during, and after Kant's efforts. (In fact, at
the Wolfenbiittel conference, Myles Burnyeat had expressed the opinion that after
Kant's achievement, skepticism ceased to be a philosophic problem. I replied that
Kaht~s solution only lasted a few weeks until it was attacked and skeptically
challenged by Maimon, Hamann, Schulze and others. Burnyeat was surprised and
asked if anyone but Popkin knew about these figures.)
Realizing that skepticism in Germany would be a central part of the next
conference, we started looking for a host institution there. I discussed possibilities
with Peter Reill of the UCLA Center for Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century
Studies, who was involved with the leaders of the Max-Planck-Institute for Historical
Studies in Gottingen and with members of the German Historical Institutes in
xi
xii Preface
Washington and London. With Hartmut Lehmann's appointment as the Director of
the Max-Planck-Institute we found a fine location for our conference. Years earlier
on a visit to Gottingen I was impressed by how much the University had kept its late
eighteenth-century persona. The plaques on the buildings telling of the many
distinguished figures who had been there indicated that this was one of the most
important centers of skeptical discussion at the time.
Among the attractions of Gottingen was the fact that the first history of skepti
cism, by Carl Friedrich Staudlin, was written and published there in 1794.
Constance Blackwell and I tried to aim at holding the conference in 1994, the two
hundredth anniversary of the publication of Stliudlin's work. But due to financial
and logistical problems we had to wait another year. In the meantime one of our
friends, Dr. Ulrich Schneider of Leipzig University, who had written on Staudlin,
brought up the possibility of holding the conference partially in Leipzig and then at
Gottingen, where we would do homage to Stliudlin and launch him into the modem
intellectual world. We had hoped to have an English translation of his two volumes
ready for publication by the time of the conference but though well on its way that
has not yet come to pass.
With the help and resources of the Foundation for Intellectual History, the
UCLA Center for Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Studies, the Max-Planck
Institute at GOttingen, and Leipzig University, we were ready to proceed. In late
June of 1995 I met with Hans BOdeker of the Max-Planck-Institute and Ulrich
Schneider in a park in London across the street from the Italian Cultural Institute
where we had all been at a meeting organized by Constance Blackwell. There on
a park bench we drew up an outline of the program, a list of people to be invited,
topics to be discussed at the conference, and some of the logistics of a conference
to be held at two distant locales. We planned to cover both theoretical and practical
subjects insofar as they indicated the role of skepticism in the period.
When we had fmished our meeting, believing we had the whole conference
successfully planned, we discovered to our astonishment that we were in a private
park, and that while we had been deep in discussion the park had been locked up
and only people with a key could enter or exit the park. While we debated whether
to send our youngest and fittest confrere, Ulrich Schneider, to scale the wall (and
risk the wrath of the local constabulary), a woman came by apparently from a tennis
court. When she heard our plight, rather than calling the police, she took out her
key and released us.
We returned to our respective homes, and the Max-Planck-Institute began the
task of assembling the participants and setting up the actual program. Faxes went
back and forth across the Atlantic during the fall and winter of 1994-95. In early
1995 my health got worse, and my doctor unfortunately told me that I could not do
any flying at the time. (The situation has gotten worse, and it seems that I will not
be able to fly anywhere in the future.) I, therefore, had to drop out of the
conference, and leave my colleagues with all of the problems. And I had to miss
the intellectual joy of participating in the actual conference, both with the feast of
ideas and the give and take of the many discussions that took place. In fact I had
to drop out of a conference on skepticism in Paris prior to our meeting, and another