This study has been developed over the last half century and represents not only the results of the author’s findings but also the results of the assistance, advice, and encouragement of many people and institutions. It is, therefore, a great pleasure for me to be able to take this opportunity to thank those who have given so generously of their help in various forms.
First of all, I wish to express my thanks to the United States State Department, which awarded me Fulbright research grants to the University of Paris, 1952–53, and to the University of Utrecht, 1957–58; and to the American Philosophical Society, which awarded me grants in 1956 and 1958 to carry on my research in France and Italy. By means of these grants, I was able to have the opportunity to examine and study much material that is not available in this country and was able to have periods of time away from my teaching duties, so that I could concentrate on preparing this study.
Since the first edition of this work I have had grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Alexander Kohut Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which have helped me broaden my knowledge and understanding of modern scepticism.
I am most grateful also to the many libraries in the United States and Europe that have allowed me to use their facilities, especially the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris; the British Library; the Biblioteek van de Universiteit van Utrecht; the Biblioteca Laurenziana of Florence; the Rijksbiblioteek in The Hague; the University of Amsterdam Library; the Institut Catholique of Toulouse Library; the National Library, Toulouse; the National Library, Montpellier; the Newberry Library of Chicago; the University of California, San Diego, Library; the Henry Huntington Library; the William Andrews Clark Library of the University of California, Los Angeles; the Olin Library at Washington University, St. Louis; New York Public Library; Yale University Library; Harvard Library; Leiden University Library; Bibliothèque de l’Histoire du Protestantisme Français; Bibliothèque de Sainte Geneviève; La Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal; Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel; Marsh Library, Dublin; Dr. Williams Library, London; the Warburg Institute Library, London; the University of London Library; the Sutro Library, San Francisco; Hebrew Union College Library, Cincinnati; Ets Haim Library, Amsterdam; the National Library of Israel, Jerusalem; Bibliothèque Municipal de Lyon; the Institute for Humanities, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley; and Condé Archives, Chantilly, France.
I am extremely indebted to the State University of Iowa and to the late Dean Walter Loehwing of the Graduate College for their generosity in making time, materials, and funds available to me to complete the original study.
I owe my initial acquaintance with and interest in scepticism and the role it played in modern philosophy to my teachers, especially to John H. Randall and Paul O. Kristeller of Columbia University and Charles W. Hendel of Yale University. Through the encouragement of Paul Weiss of Yale, I was led to sketch out my views in a series of articles in the Review of Metaphysics. I am most grateful to the many scholars who have patiently discussed matters about the history of scepticism with me, and who have advised and encouraged me in this work: Susanna Åkerman, Father Julian-Eymard d’Angers, Jean-Robert Armogathe, Miguel Benitez, Sir Isaiah Berlin, Silvia Berti, John Bidwell, Constance Blackwell, Olivier Bloch, Justin Champion, James R. Collins, Brian Copenhaver, Allison Coudert, Isadora Dambska, Cornelia De Vogel, Paul Dibon, Arthur Field, Luciano Floridi, James Force, Donald Frame, Lila Freedman, Amos Funkenstein, Alan Gabbey, Dan Garber, Gunther Gawlick, Judah Goldin, Matt Goldish, Henri Gouhier, Jean Grenier, Will Hamlin, Father Paul Henry, Michael Heyd, Christopher Hill, Michael Hunter, Sarah Hutton, Moshe Idel, Rob Iliffe, Jonathan Israel, Sally Jenkinson, Yosef Kaplan, David Katz, Leszek Kolakowski, Karl Kottman, Alexandre Koyré, Karl Kuypers, Elisabeth Labrousse, Jacqueline Lagrée, Yuen Ting Lai, Imre Lakatos, John C. Laursen, Fabrizio Lelli, Thomas Lennon, Abbé Robert Lenoble, André-Louis Leroy, Arthur Lesley, José Maia Neto, Herbert Marcuse, Antony McKenna, Henri Méchoulan, Arnaldo Momigliano, Pierre-François Moreau, Martin Mulsow, Silvia Murr, Steven Nadler, Ezekiel Olaso, Jean Orcibal, Gianni Paganini, Schlomo Pines, René Pintard, Peter Reill, Bernard Rochot, John Rogers, Leonora Cohen Rosenfield, Antonio Rotondò, David Ruderman, Teo Ruiz, Charles Schmitt, Gershom Scholem, Paul Schrecker, Steven Schwarzchild, Luisa Simonutti, Avrum Stroll, Jef Tans, C. Louise Thijssen-Schoute Giorgio Tonelli, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Wiep van Bunge, Jan Van den Berg, Ernestine Van der Wall, Theo Verbeek, John Watkins, Richard Watson, Charles Webster, Donald Weinstein, Robert Westman, Arthur Williamson, Jan Wocjik, and Thomas Wright.
I should also like to thank Kimberly Gaumol, Russell Court, Anna Suranyi, Tim Correll, Laura Talamante and Melissa Soderman, UCLA graduate students who did research and library work for me, when it became too difficult for me to travel there or to read the material.
I want especially to thank two assistants who made the completion of the book possible. Gabriella Goldstein began the project on the computer, read source material to me, took dictation, and began the organization of this enlarged and revised edition. Stephanie Chasin, who has worked on the project almost every day for the last year, has done an invaluable job in bringing the work to completion. She has been a reader, secretary, editor, and advisor. I am most grateful to all of these wonderful young people who have made it possible for me to undertake this project and to bring it to completion as my infirmities increased. I hope that the finished project is worthy of their efforts.
Many of these people will, no doubt, disagree with some of the conclusions I have come to, but their discussions with me have been invaluable in helping to clarify and develop my ideas. I also wish to thank some of my former students and colleagues who have assisted me, particularly Graham Conroy, George Arbaugh, Richard Watson, Florence Weinberg, Philip Cummins, Harry M. Bracken, and Theodore Waldman, who were at the State University of Iowa when this work was first being written.
I am most grateful to John Lowenthal and to my wife, Juliet, who have assisted me enormously in editorial matters connected with the manuscript.
Last, and most important, I want to thank my family—my wife Juliet, and my children, Jeremy, Margaret, and Susan—for their fortitude and patience throughout all the trials, tribulations, and voyages of the author and his manuscript. Without their love, kindness, and willingness to sacrifice, this study could never have been completed. I only hope this study is worthy of all the difficulties it has caused them.