Universal Skepticism

About the Book

This is a second book for unrepentant skeptics, written as a sequel to Taking the Lying out of Living: the Skeptic’s Manifesto, published back in 2001. Although that earlier work was an excellent introduction to the principles of universal skepticism, I feel that if left out a number of important observations. Without repeating any of the points made in my previous effort, in this book I want to broaden and to deepen my investigation into what keeps most human beings from leading more satisfactory lives. To that end, I have included a lot of new information about the toxicity of leadership in all the different walks of life, as well as new examples of how the different belief systems have been used to deprive almost everyone from realizing life’s most important ambitions. Once again, I have used history, current events and my own experience to find appropriate but often ironic, even humorous, illustrations of organized frailty and egoism. Universal skepticism is the best method available for us to reject all the different kinds of parochialism—religion, political ideologies including patriotism, and social discrimination of all kinds—that prevent us from becoming genuinely free for the first time. Even though I realize how difficult it is to bring about, I would like this book to help readers work their way past the partial allegiances that afflict us all. Our goal should be to let nothing intermediate get in between our own individuality and our participation in the universal human experience, such as it is today.

About the Author

Kevin Henley is a professor at Maisonneuve College in Montreal, Canada. He has twenty-five years experience in the teaching of both history and research methods, in English and in French, at the university level as well as at the college level. He has a Ph. D. in the history of ideology at the University of Quebec at Montreal and has published several scientific articles on that subject. He is also the author of two other books published by Xlibris, “Taking the Lying out of Living: The Skeptic’s Manifesto” (2001) and “Universal Skepticism: Taking the Lying out of Living, Book Two” (2004).