Richard Popkin | |
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Born | December 27, 1923 Manhattan, New York |
Died | April 14, 2005 Los Angeles, California |
(aged 81)
Era | 20th-century philosophy |
Region | Western Philosophy |
School | Scepticism, Pyrrhonian skepticism |
Main interests
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History of philosophy, Seventeenth century, Eighteenth century, Jewish philosophers, Jewish philosophy, millenarianism and messianism |
Notable ideas
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Influence of Pyrrhonian skepticism on Western thought |
Influences
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Influenced
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Richard Henry Popkin (/ˈpɑːpkɪn/; December 27, 1923 – April 14, 2005) was an 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 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 Jewish and Christian millenarianism and messianism.
Richard Popkin was born in Manhattan to Louis and author Zelda Popkin, who jointly ran a small public relations firm. He earned his Bachelor's degree and, in 1950, his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He taught at American universities, including the University of Connecticut, The University of Iowa, Harvey Mudd College, the University of California, San Diego, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of California Los Angeles. He was visiting professor at University of California Berkeley, Brandeis University, Duke University, Emory University, Tel Aviv University, and was Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York. Popkin was the founding director of the International Archives of the History of Ideas.