The Limits of Doubt
The Moral and Political Implications of Skepticism
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Shows how different forms of skepticism can lead to remarkably different moral and political implications.
Description
The Limits of Doubt studies the skepticism of Nietzsche, Sextus Empiricus, Hobbes, Diderot, and Montaigne in order to illustrate how different forms of skepticism can produce remarkably different implications. These include toleration; chastening of character; the prohibition of cruelty; indifference; corrosiveness of liberal principles; and freeing of the will from moral restraint. Demonstrating how skepticism is an underdetermined and unstable category, accompanied by varying unquestioned intentions and beliefs, this book shows how these limits of doubt shape its various possible implications. A unique examination of skepticism from a moral and political perspective, The Limits of Doubt will interest all those concerned with the possibilities for life in an age of doubt.
Petr Lom is Associate Professor in the Nationalism Studies Program at Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
Reviews
"The Limits of Doubt is the best book that I have seen in over twenty years on moral-political skepticism. There are fresh insights on every page. This is a superb piece of work, clearly argued and beautifully written." — Patrick Riley, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"This is a useful guide to the tradition of moral skepticism. Lom has crafted a careful, intelligent, and sensitive reading of the texts, with a remarkable command of secondary commentary." — Peter Breiner, author of Max Weber and Democratic Politics