The literary career of William Shakespeare coincides directly with a period during which early modern England witnessed a vigorous new interest in philosophical scepticism. Common-sense doubt about religious, moral, and political orthodoxy exists in every culture, but published writings from Elizabethan and Jacobean England display a steadily-increasing familiarity with the lexicon and argumentative tactics of classical scepticism – particularly as this scepticism was elaborated in Renaissance Italy and France. Shakespeare himself may never have read the epistemological treatises of antiquity, but his plays at times exhibit striking affinities with the concerns and attitudes of a thoughtful, probing scepticism which simultaneously

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Published 14 January 2009

Citation: Hamlin, William M.. "Scepticism and Shakespeare". The Literary Encyclopedia. 14 January 2009.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5769, accessed 9 February 2010.]