PHILIP WALSH is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology/Anthropology at the State University of New York, College at Cortland, where he teaches social theory. He has published articles on Hegel and Nietzsche and is the co-editor (with Davis Schmeiderman) of the collection Re-Taking the Universe: William S. Burroughs in the Age of Globalization (2004).

• PART I: SKEPTICISM AND MODERN PHILOSOPHY Idealism, Metacritique and Ancient Skepticism On the Origins of Modern Scepticism: Descartes, Doubt and Certainty PART II: SKEPTICISM AND IDEALISM The Question of Legitimacy: Skepticism, Law and Transcendental Idealism Hegel and self-completing skepticism PART III: SKEPTICISM AND THE CRITIQUE OF MODERNITY Skepticism, Nihilism and the Crisis of Rationality Negative Dialectics and the Fate of Critical Theory