Rethinking the History of Skepticism: The Missing Medieval Background

The history of skepticism usually ignores the Middle Ages. It is customary in most historical overviews to say that epistemological skepticism and external-world skepticism did not find its way into the Western philosophical tradition until Sextus Empiricus was rediscovered and retranslated into Latin in the Sixteenth century. It is the aim of this book to show that this is not true and that the history of skepticism must be rewritten. It is only once the rich discussions of both epistemological and external-world skepticism in the Middle Ages are included that the whole history of skepticism can be written, and only then can the development of modern thought be understood. This book begins this rewriting of the history of skepticism by tracing discussions of skepticism from Al-Ghazali to sixteenth century Paris.