Francisco Sánchez y el redescubrimiento de la duda en el Renacimiento, por Marcelo Saúl Broitman.
This book presents the philosophical and historical context for the work of Francisco Sánchez—medical doctor and thinker in Habsburg Spain—known as el Escéptico. In order to provide the background to Sánchez’s main book, Quod nihil scitur (That nothing is known), the study presents an analysis of the various stages of skeptical thought from its inception in ancient times until its resurgence in the European Renaissance.
Broitman pays special attention to the work of three early philosophers: Pyrrho of Elis, the legendary founder of the skeptical school who left no written work behind, but whose life, as told mainly by Diogenes Laertius, was a model for his followers; Arcesilaus, who helped to steer Plato’s Academy towards skepticism during the period of that school that is known as the Middle Academy, and Carneades, who headed the so called New Academy.
Regarding the disdain for skeptical thought traditionally attributed to philosophers of the Middle Ages, this book pays attention to an exceptional text by Henry of Ghent. For other reasons, there are also references to Peter of Spain, perhaps the most popular philosophical author of his time. To better understand some characteristics of medieval dialectic and the consequent criticism by Francisco Sánchez, this book includes the Spanish translation of two texts: one by Francesco Petrarca, and the other, a highly critical text by Juan Luis Vives that very probably influenced the work of Sánchez.
This book also considers the role that the religious reformers Girolamo Savonarola and Martin Luther may have played in the revival of skepticism in their time. The last section of the book exposes and analyzes two philosophical works by Francisco Sánchez, Carmen de cometa anni M.D.LXXVII, and Quod nihil scitur. The latter was instrumental in the rediscovery of critical thinking, and was well known and highly appreciated, or defamed, in its time. It is the work that placed Sánchez in the history of Western thought.
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Series: Ediciones críticas, #61
ISBN 978-1-58871-190-8 (HB, 182 pp.) $48