Abstract

Against charges that Pyrrhonism is unlivable, critics both ancient and modern have responded. Hume read, and frequently echoes, Pierre-Daniel Huet, a central figure in the Pyrrhonian-fideist movement. Though Hume often borrows Pyrrhonian-style arguments in the _Dialogues_ to serve his purposes, unlike the French fideists he does not invoke them in the service of a religious faith. Contemporary scholars have claimed Hume as a fideist; this book, and the work of Don Garrett, disprove this view. Hume was not a Pyrrhonian skeptic; he has Philo reject Cleanthes’ arguments on Cleanthes’ own terms, rejecting them on empirical grounds.