«Je veux être libre, je veux suivre mes propres sentimens»: Pierre-Daniel Huet e il Traité philosophique de la foiblesse de l’esprit humain

Abstract

This article aims at contributing to the intense and continuing debate on Pierre-Daniel Huet’s scepticism as expressed in his posthumous Traité philosophique de la foiblesse de l’esprit humain, the most controversial and at the same time original work of his scholarly production. A recovery of the archetypal schema used by Huet for the production of this work, an examination of the manuscripts preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and a new consideration of the intellectual bibliography of the author clear the path to a new consideration on the nature of this particular work and on Huet’s adhesion to scepticism. The particular preference of Huet for his Traité can be better explained through the, in this work often invoked, liberté philosophique.