Richard Popkin

Richard Popkin
BornDecember 27, 1923
Manhattan, New York
DiedApril 14, 2005(2005-04-14) (aged 81)[1]
Los Angeles, California
Alma materColumbia University
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolScepticism, Pyrrhonian skepticism
Main interests
History of philosophy, Seventeenth century, Eighteenth century, Jewish philosophers, Jewish philosophy, millenarianism and messianism
Notable ideas
Influence of Pyrrhonian skepticism on Western philosophy

Richard Henry Popkin (December 27, 1923 – April 14, 2005) was an American academic philosopher who specialized in the history of enlightenment philosophy and early modern anti-dogmatism. His 1960 work The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Descartes[2] introduced one previously unrecognized influence on Western thought in the seventeenth century, the Pyrrhonian Scepticism of Sextus Empiricus. Popkin also was an internationally acclaimed scholar on Christian millenarianism and Jewish messianism.

  1. ^ Wolfgang Saxon (19 April 2005). "Richard Popkin, Historian of Philosophy and Skepticism, Dies at 81". The New York Times. p. C 17. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  2. ^ Later editions are enlarged and so have slightly different titles