Synopses & Reviews
This collection presents some of the most vital and original recent writings on Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, the three greatest rationalists of the early modern period. Their work offered brilliant and distinct integrations of science, morals, metaphysics, and religion, which today remain at the center of philosophical discussion. The essays written especially for this volume explore how these three philosophical systems treated matter, substance, human freedom, natural necessity, knowledge, mind, and consciousness. The contributors include some of the most prominent writers in the field, including Jonathan Bennett, Michael Della Rocca, Jan A. Cover, Catherine Wilson, Stephen Voss, Edwin Curley, Don Garrett, and Margaret D. Wilson.
Review
"Offers a great deal for the specialist to get his or her teeth into. The contributions are of an almost uniformly high quality. Most [of the contributors] are driven by a desire to achieve a better understanding of the philosophers themselves [rather than using] these great, dead philosophers simply as a pretext or springboard for discussing an issue of contemporary concern. Those who regard this as a step in the right direction will find much to admire in the present volume."--Nicholas Jolley,
Philosophical ReviewSynopsis
This collection presents some of the most vital and original recent writings on Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, the three greatest rationalists of the early modern period. Their work offered brilliant and distinct integrations of science, morals, metaphysics, and religion, which today remain at the center of philosophical discussion. The essays written especially for this volume explore how these three philosophical systems treated matter, substance, human freedom, natural necessity, knowledge, mind, and consciousness. The contributors include some of the most prominent writers in the field, including Jonathan Bennett, Michael Della Rocca, Jan A. Cover, Catherine Wilson, Stephen Voss, Edwin Curley, Don Garrett, and Margaret D. Wilson.
About the Author
Rocco J. Gennaro is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Indiana State University, Terre Haute. He is the author of
Consciousness and Self-Consciousness: A Defense of the Higher-Order Thought Theory of Consciousness (1996) and
Mind and Brain: A Dialogue on the Mind-Body Problem (1996).
Charles Huenemann is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Utah State University. His research interests include early modern philosophy, Kant, and Neo-Kantianism.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I - Matter and Substance
1. Space and Subtle Matter in Descartes's Metaphysics, Jonathan Bennett, Syracuse University
2. Descartes on Nothing in Particular, Eric Palmer, Allegheny College, Pennsylvania
3. "If a Body Meets a Body": Descartes on Body-Body Causation, Michael Della Rocca, Yale University
4. Descartes's Extended Substances, Mathew Stuart, Bowdoin College, Maine
5. Spinoza's Extended Substance: Cartesian and Leibnizian Reflections, Jan A. Cover, Purdue University
6. Leibniz's Constructivism and Infinitely Folded Matter, Samuel Levey, Dartmouth College
7. Locke and Leibniz and the Debate over Species, Susanna Goodin, University of Wyoming
Part II - Freedom and Necessity
8. Descartes on Spontaneity, Indifference, and Alternatives, Joseph Keim Campbell, Washington State University
9. The Range of Leibnizian Compatibilism, Eric Sotnak, University of Akron, Ohio
10. The Necessity of Finite Modes and Geometrical Containment in Spinoza's Metaphysics, Charles Huenemann, Utah State University
11. Spinoza's Necessitarianism Reconsidered, Edwin Curley and Gregory Walski, both at University of Michigan
Part III - Mind and Consciousness
12. A Spectator at the Theater of the World, Stephen Voss, Bogazici University, Turkey
13. Distinctness, Clarence Bonnen and Daniel Flage, both at James Madison University, Virginia
14. Causation and Similarity in Descartes, Geoffrey Gorham, Cornell College, Iowa
15. Teleology in Spinoza and Early Modern Rationalism, Don Garret, University of Utah
16. "For They Do Not Agree In Nature With Us": Spinoza on the Lower Animals, Margaret D. Wilson, Princeton University
17. Leibniz on Consciousness and Self-Consciousness, Rocco J. Gennaro, Indiana State University
18. The Illusory Nature of Leibniz's System, Catherine Wilson, University of Alberta, Canada
Bibliography
Index