Del Prete, Antonella

Senior Fellow: July–August 2022 and April–June 2023

Research Project: Scepticism between the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries

During the seventeenth century, thanks to the influence of René Descartes on the one hand and Robert Boyle and Joseph Glanvill on the other, the interest in the epistemological side of scepticism prevailed. Therefore, scepticism seemed to avoid the critique of religion and moral relativism and appeared to be compatible with an apologetic design. Despite these precautions, sceptics were often accused of irreligion or atheism. The refutation of modern scepticism requires the construction of a complex speech, building an intricate network of sceptical affinities which often includes authors from ancient times and authors of the modern age, and not only philosophers, but also theologians. Condemnations of scepticism actually elaborate some doxographic treatises which would evolve into histories of philosophy during the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. Anontella Del Prete aims to examine this evolution through some cases studies, especially referring to Dutch and German cultures, and  intend to establish a possible link between the refutations of scepticism found in Martin Schoock and Gijsbert Voetius’s works and the presentations of this philosophy present in Georg Morhof and Jakob Brucker, finding and analysing intermediate texts and paying particular attention to the disputes produced by Dutch and German universities.

Antonella Del Prete is an associate professor at Università degli Studi della Tuscia in Viterbo.