Bayle on Évidence as a Criterion of Truth

This paper seeks to answer the following question: was Pierre Bayle a skeptic or a dogmatist about the dominant criterion of truth of his day, namely évidence? This paper will proceed by presenting Bayle’s evolving accounts of évidence in his three most important discussions of that criterion: in his first philosophical work, the Cours; in his article “Pyrrhon” of the Dictionnaire; and in his last philosophical work, the Entretiens de Maxime et de Thémiste.