A Skeptic Among Scholars

When August Frugé joined the University of California Press in 1944, it was part of the University's printing department, publishing a modest number of books a year, mainly monographs by UC faculty members. When he retired as director 32 years later, the Press had been transformed into one of the largest, most distinguished university presses in the country, publishing more than 150 books annually in fields ranging from ancient history to contemporary film criticism, by notable authors from all over the world. August Frugé's memoir provides an exciting intellectual and topical story of the building of this great press. Along the way, it recalls battles for independence from the University administration, the Press's distinctive early style of book design, and many of the authors and staff who helped shape the Press in its formative years.

When August Frugé joined the University of California Press in 1944, it was part of the University's printing department, publishing a modest number of books a year, mainly monographs by UC faculty members. When he retired as director 32 years later, the Press had been transformed into one of the largest, most distinguished university presses in the country, publishing more than 150 books annually in fields ranging from ancient history to contemporary film criticism, by notable authors from all over the world. August Frugé's memoir provides an exciting intellectual and topical story of the building of this great press. Along the way, it recalls battles for independence from the University administration, the Press's distinctive early style of book design, and many of the authors and staff who helped shape the Press in its formative years.

This book is the first systematic account of Pierre Charron’s influence among the major French philosophers in the period (1601-1662). It shows that Charron’s Wisdom was one of the main sources of inspiration of Pierre Gassendi’s first published book, the Exercitationes adversus aristoteleos. It sheds new light on La Mothe Le Vayer, who is usually viewed as a major free thinker. By showing that he was a follower of Charron, La Mothe emerges neither as a skeptical apologist nor as a disguised libertine, as combatting superstition but not as irreligious. The book shows the close presence of Charron in the preambles of Descartes’ philosophy and that the cogito is mainly based on the moral Academic self-assurance of Charron’s wise man. This interpretation reverses the standard view of Descartes’ relation to skepticism. Once this skepticism is recognized to be Charron’s Academic one, it is seen not as the target but as the source of the cogito. Pascal is the last major philosopher for whom Charron’s wisdom is crucially relevant. Montaigne and Descartes influenced, respectively, Pascal’s view of the Pyrrhonian skeptic and of the skeptical main arguments. The book shows that Charron’s Academic skeptical wise man is one of the main targets of his projected apology for Christianity, since he considered him as a threat and counter-example of the kind of Christian view of human beings he believed. By restoring the historical philosophical relevance of Charron in early modern philosophy and arguing for the relevance of Academic skepticism in the period, this book opens a new research program to early modern scholars and will be valuable for those interested in the history of philosophy, French literature and religion.

There are many ways to show our devotion to an author besides reading his or her works. Graves make for popular pilgrimage sites, but far more popular are writers' house museums. What is it we hope to accomplish by trekking to the home of a dead author? We may go in search of the point of inspiration, eager to stand on the very spot where our favorite literary characters first came to life—and find ourselves instead in the house where the author himself was conceived, or where she drew her last breath. Perhaps it is a place through which our writer passed only briefly, or maybe it really was a longtime home—now thoroughly remade as a decorator's show-house. In A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses Anne Trubek takes a vexed, often funny, and always thoughtful tour of a goodly number of house museums across the nation. In Key West she visits the shamelessly ersatz shrine to a hard-living Ernest Hemingway, while meditating on his lost Cuban farm and the sterile Idaho house in which he committed suicide. In Hannibal, Missouri, she walks the fuzzy line between fact and fiction, as she visits the home of the young Samuel Clemens—and the purported haunts of Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher, and Injun' Joe. She hits literary pay-dirt in Concord, Massachusetts, the nineteenth-century mecca that gave home to Hawthorne, Emerson, and Thoreau—and yet could not accommodate a surprisingly complex Louisa May Alcott. She takes us along the trail of residences that Edgar Allan Poe left behind in the wake of his many failures and to the burned-out shell of a California house with which Jack London staked his claim on posterity. In Dayton, Ohio, a charismatic guide brings Paul Laurence Dunbar to compelling life for those few visitors willing to listen; in Cleveland, Trubek finds a moving remembrance of Charles Chesnutt in a house that no longer stands. Why is it that we visit writers' houses? Although admittedly skeptical about the stories these buildings tell us about their former inhabitants, Anne Trubek carries us along as she falls at least a little bit in love with each stop on her itinerary and finds in each some truth about literature, history, and contemporary America.

The financial, technological, and institutional challenges facing scholarly presses are more critical now than they have ever been. Sales channels have narrowed, costs have risen, and technological change and the push toward open access have drastically changed the economic landscape. However, the publishing and dissemination of scholarly books and journals remains essential to academic research. How are publishers adapting this evolving environment? In The Business of Scholarly Publishing, Albert N. Greco examines this question through a detailed analysis of the business of the scholarly publishing in the United States since World War II. Drawing on an extensive review of the literature, statistical sources, and real examples from the author's experience in the industry, this book analyzes the changing circumstances of scholarly publishing. Greco turns a critical eye to the product, price, placement, promotion, and costs of scholarly books and journals with a primary emphasis on the trajectory over the last ten years. By including books, journals, pre-prints, and online repositories, the book covers the diverse range of academic publications and explains how publishers can address contemporary challenges across formats. Greco also pays special attention to the history and development of scholarly books and journals, intellectual property issues, contracts, and the impact of technology. The first study wholly devoted to the subject, The Business of Scholarly Publishing offers critical insights into the evolving business strategies and structures of a resilient industry.

This book traces, in detail, the complex contours of the Locke-Proast debate over the question of toleration-revealing the radical case John Locke made on behalf of toleration. Arguing against the pro-persecution arguments of Jonas Proast, Locke developed a broadly humanistic case for toleration rooted in liberal notions of consent, human dependency, and skepticism. Locke's theory would extend to a wide range of religious believers and even atheists. However, at the same time, according to Locke, toleration requires an overcoming of the religious worldview, rather than an emergence out of theological assumptions, as many scholars argue. Ultimately, the success of toleration involves more than institutional reforms such as the separation of church and state or a mere modus vivendi among fighting faiths; it entails a shift in core religious beliefs and identities and a fundamental change in religious believers themselves. By undertaking a careful reading of the quarrel between Locke and Proast, this book furthers our understanding of the political alternatives of persecution, toleration, and pluralism.

Does human life have any significance? The statements below have become widely accepted in the Western world: -Life is the accidental product of random events. -The laws of physics are totally deterministic. -Science does not accept a connection between physical matter and human consciousness. -Atheism is a conclusion from evidence while faith is speculation. -Science and faith are incompatible. -Suffering contradicts the existence of a loving, omnipotent God. -Jesus was a compilation of pagan mythologies or a human teacher who was deified. But do these statements represent eternal truths? Are they logical conclusions based on established facts or merely opinions? What is the evidence? To investigate these and other questions of existence and faith, a skeptical academic objectively explored relevant aspects of philosophy, mythology, history, archaeology, cosmology, quantum physics, biochemistry, and various faiths that finally led to investigation of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures (including the Dead Sea Scrolls and the gnostic gospels). The findings of this research not only challenge many modern assumptions but also have significant implications for our understanding of reality. Written with minimum technicality for general readership, this book presents a wide range of interesting and carefully confirmed facts relevant to the above questions. Whether you are an atheist or an agnostic, a Christian, or a follower of another faith, or have simply not been interested, this investigation provides valuable and surprising insights into the nature of the universe and our place in it.

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