Synopses & Reviews
This guide brings together eighteen original interpretations of the modern philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche. The contributors succeed brilliantly in placing their figures within a rich historical, cultural, and philosophical context, noting some of the important ways in which their ideas and arguments were shaped by the intellectual currents of the time, and how they in turn shaped subsequent philosophical debate.
Each chapter focuses on the central ideas and arguments of an individual philosopher, with discussions ranging over a wide variety of topics, including morality, politics, religion, epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, logic, mathematics, and the natural sciences.
Combining the virtues of careful scholarship and lucid exposition, these essays achieve a balance between intellectual history and philosophical analysis that is rarely found in collections of this kind. Thus, although the volume is eminently suitable for a student audience, the essays will certainly be of great interest to scholars who work in the field of modern philosophy or whose work encompasses intellectual history.
Review
"Steven Emmanuel has done an impressive job of assembling a distinguished group of authors who give us a very helpful guide to the modern philosophers. With an eye to bringing us 'up to speed' on the more recent scholarship, the contributors provide a timely, readable, and highly worthwhile collection."
John Fischer, University of California, Riverside "This is a wonderful resource! It provides a valuable service by drawing on experts for eminently clear and engaging narratives. I expect to refer to it often." M. Jamie Ferreira, University of Virginia
"This book is a worthy acquisition." R.H. Nash, Reformed Theological Seminary, Choice, January 2001
"A superb volume...Each essay is clearly written, with most or all jargon carefully explained. By far this book's greatest asset...is the extraordinary way in which Emmanuel gets the different authors to provide, as if in concert, a chronological development of the main ideas of the period. Emmanuel's beautiful volume can, I think, very richly supplement a student's exposure to the period for those figures whose work receives little or no space on the syllabus." Patrick Mooney, John Carroll University, THES, 1/6/01
Synopsis
This guide brings together eighteen original interpretations of the modern philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche. The contributors succeed brilliantly in placing their figures within a rich historical, cultural, and philosophical context, noting some of the important ways in which their ideas and arguments were shaped by the intellectual currents of the time, and how they in turn shaped subsequent philosophical debate.
About the Author
Steven M. Emmanuel is Professor of Philosophy at Virginia Wesleyan College. He is author of Kierkegaard & the Concept of Revelation (1996).
Table of Contents
List of Contributors.
Preface.
1. RenU Descartes (1596-1650): Gary Hatfield (University of Pennsylvania).
2. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): A. P. Martinich (University of Texas at Austin).
3. Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677): Don Garrett (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).
4. Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715): Steven Nadler (University of Wisconsin, Madison).
5. G. W. Leibniz (1646-1716): Donald Rutherford (The University of California, San Diego).
6. John Locke (1632-1704): Martha Brandt Bolton (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey).
7. George Berkeley (1685-1753): George Pappas (Ohio State University).
8. David Hume (1711-1776): David Fate Norton (McGill University).
9. Thomas Reid (1710-1796): Ernest Sosa (Brown University) James Van Cleve (Brown University).
10. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1788): N. J. H. Dent (University of Birmingham, England).
11. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): Patricia Kitcher (Columbia University).
12. Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832): Ross Harrison (King's College, Cambridge University).
13. G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831): Stephen Houlgate (University of Warwick).
14. S?ren Kierkegaard (1813-1855):C. Stephen Evans (Calvin College). 15. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860): Christopher Janaway (Birkbeck College, The University of London).
16. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873): Wendy Donner (Carleton University) Richard Fumerton (University of Iowa).
17. Karl Marx (1818-1883): Terrell Carver (University of Bristol, England).
18. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): Richard Schacht (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign).
Select Bibliography.
Index.