Anton Matytsin
Ph.D. Candidate
(ABD)
matytsin@sas.upenn.edu
Education
B.A. summa cum laude, University of Pennsylvania (2007), M.A. University of Pennsylvania (2009)
Research Interests
Early-Modern Intellectual History, History of Science, Ancient and Early Modern Skepticism, History of Economic and Political Thought, Early-Modern France
Advisor
Dissertation Topic
“The Specter of Skepticism and Sources of Certainty in the Early Enlightenment”
My dissertation explores the way in which thinkers of the early eighteenth century responded to the challenges posed by the revival and proliferation of philosophical and historical skepticism. While philosophical skeptics are often credited with ushering in modernity by providing effective critiques of traditional intellectual authorities, their opponents played an equal if not more important role in shaping the debates of the Enlightenment and formulating new criteria of certainty. By looking at the way in which thinkers in France, England, and the Netherlands attempted either to preserve or to construct anew the foundations of their epistemological and ontological systems, my dissertation sheds light on how these orthodox sources impelled intellectual change.
Publications
- “Skepticism and Certainty in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Speculations about the Plurality of Worlds”, The European Legacy (publication forthcoming in a special volume on Early-Modern Skepticism in 2011)
- “Bayle’s Protestant Critics at the Dawn of the Enlightenment” (publication forthcoming as part of conference proceedings of the International Symposium on Scepticism and the Enlightenment in 2011)
Conference Papers
- “Historical Pyrrhonism and Historical Certainty in the Early Enlightenment” to be presented at the International Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (Graz, Austria), July 2011
- “Skepticism and Certainty in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Speculations about the Plurality of Worlds” presented at the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, (Cankaya University, Ankara), August 2010
- “Bayle’s Protestant Critics at the Dawn of the Enlightenment” presented at the International Symposium on Scepticism and the Enlightenment, (Universidade Sao Judas Tadeu, Sao Paolo, Brazil), December 2009
- “Pierre-Sylvain Régis and the Cartesian Debates About the Soul” presented at the European Science Foundation Programme: From Natural Philosophy to Science, (Den Bosch, Netherlands), July 2008
