ABSTRACT
Scepticism is most commonly associated with the criticism of theological doctrines. In philosophy, however, it is more usually taken to mean the attitude of doubt towards every kind of knowledge. Pierre Poiret was for a time under the influence of the philosophy of Descartes and Spinoza. Pierre Bayle was genuinely religious in sentiment, and sceptical in his philosophy; and he had the honesty and courage to state the position as he felt it to be. Under the guidance of a few Jewish sympathizers, Moses Mendelssohn acquired a good knowledge of mathematics, logic, philosophy, English, French, Latin, and Greek, as well as German. Immanuel Kant described it as the last and most perfect stronghold of the older metaphysics, because it did not take into consideration Kant’s new “critical” philosophy of 1781. One may observe in Joseph Priestley’s philosophy an interesting attempt at reconciling the emotional propensities of the religious man with a respect for the rational categories of the physical sciences.
