Abstract

Popkin's History of Scepticism, first published in 1960 and now appearing in a third, revised and expanded, edition, has long since won the status of a "standard work," at once the starting-point for further historical research and an instigation to philosophical reflection on the sceptical tendencies apparently inseparable from the advent of modern thought. The two earlier editions have already been amply celebrated and criticized. The new edition includes a revised treatment of "The Revival of Greek Scepticism in the Sixteenth Century", based in part on C. B. Schmitt's research in his book Cicero Academicus and in later studies. Two new chapters have been added: "Isaac La Peyrère and the Beginnings of Religious Scepticism". embodying Popkin's many recent and continuing studies of La Peyrère and other figures in the seventeenth century pre-Adamite and Marrano movements and "Spinoza's Scepticism and Anti-Scepticism". These new chapters continue to be written in a clear and vivid style, combining narrative with analysis so as to engage both the specialist and the neophyte.