Absolute Skepticism in Herman Melville’s The Confidence-Man

Abstract: The Confidence-Man (1857), Herman Melville’s last published novel, is a rare document in the history of American thought: an epistemological exploration of Pyrrhonism, or absolute skepticism. Long considered a skeptical text only for its cynical commentary on American society, The Confidence-Man is in fact a philosophical exploration of the value of absolute skepticism as a permanent condition, worth entertaining for its epistemological revelations about the self and the polity, without serious risk of nihilism or destructive relativism. On the contrary, Melville suggests that absolute skepticism may be salutary, a philosophical and political tool for coolheadedly examining American overreliance on faith.