O dilema do ceticismo cristão: Ceticismo e Religião em Montaigne, Charron e La Mothe Le Vayer

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to understand in details how ancient skepticism was revived in modern times in order to support Christian religion. Through a study and delimitation of the Pyrrhonian and Academic key-concepts in Sextus and Cicero, the role of both these branchs in the philosophy of Montaigne, Charron and Le Vayer is verified. This analysis reveals the ambiguity of Montaignes skepticism and the coherence of Charrons skeptical defense of faith in contrast with Le Vayers, whose singularity is due to the clear employment of thePyrrhonian equipollence, which implies a ambivalence in his apology for Christianity: if his argument serves to support the Christian religion, it also serves to support any other. So the consistency of the skeptical defense of religion requires an emphases in the Academic preceptaccording to which some representations are more acceptable or truthlike than others, emphases that shows the relevance of subjectivity in the modern revival of ancient skepticism, since it does not preclude the Pyrrhonian precept of following traditional customs.