Synopses & Reviews
Jonathan Bennett engages with the thought of six great thinkers of the early modern period: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. While not neglecting the historical setting of each, his chief focus is on the words they wrote. What problem is being tackled? How exactly is the solution meant to work? Does it succeed? If not, why not? What can be learned from its success or failure? For newcomers to the early modern scene, this clearly written work is an excellent introduction to it. Those already in the know can learn how to argue with the great philosophers of the past, treating them as colleagues, antagonists, students, teachers. In this second volume, Bennett focuses on the work of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.
Synopsis
This illuminating work explores six great thinkers of the early modern period: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. While not neglecting the historical setting of each, its focus is on the words they wrote. As in all of Bennett's works, it addresses philosophy as philosophy, not as museum exhibit, and it offers a close and demanding attention to textual details. For newcomers to the early modern scene, this clearly written work is an excellent introduction, and for those already in the know, it provides tools to argue with the great philosophers of the past, treating them as colleagues, antagonists, students, and teachers.
Synopsis
Jonathan Bennett engages with the thought of six great thinkers of the early modern period: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. While not neglecting the historical setting of each, his chief focus is on the words they wrote. What problem is being tackled? How exactly is the solution meant to work? Does it succeed? If not, why not? What can be learned from its success or failure? For newcomers to the early modern scene, this clearly written work is an excellent introduction to it. Those already in the know can learn how to argue with the great philosophers of the past, treating them as colleagues, antagonists, students, teachers. In this second volume, Bennett focuses on the work of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.
About the Author
Jonathan Bennett, who now lives on an island near Vancouver, BC, was formerly Lecturer in Moral Science at the University of Cambridge, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia and then at Syracuse University. He has held visiting positions at Cornell, Michigan,Pittsburgh, and Princeton, and has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and a visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He is Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the British Academy.
Table of Contents
Volume 1 1. Cartesian and Aristotelian Physics
2. Matter and Space
3. Descartes's Physics
4. Descartes's Dualisms
5. Descartes on Causation
6. Preparing to Approach Spinoza
7. One Extended Substance
8. Explaining the Parallelism
9. Explanatory Rationalism
10. Spinoza on Belief and Error
11. Desire in Descartes and Spinoza
12. Leibniz Arrives at Monads
13. Causation and Perception in Leibniz
14. Leibniz's Physics
15. Harmony
16. Animals that Think
17. Leibniz'a Contained-Predicate Doctrine
18. Leibniz and Relations
19. Descartes's Search for Security
20. Descartes's Stability Project
Volume 2
21. Lockean Ideas: Overview and Foundations
22. Lockean Ideas: Some Details
23. Knowledge of Necessity
24. Descartes's Theory of Modality
25. Secondary Qualities
26. Locke on Essences
27. Substance in Locke
28. Berkeley against Materialism
29. Berkeley's Use of Locke's Work
30. Berkeley on Spirits
31. Berkeleian Sensible Things
32. Hume's 'Ideas'
33. Hume and Belief
34. Some Humean Doctrine about Relations
35. Hume on Causation: Negative
36. Hume on Causation: Positive
37. Hume on the Existence of Bodies
38. Reason
39. Locke on Diachronic Identity-Judgements
40. Hume and Leibniz on Personal Identity
Bibliography, Index of Persons, Index of Topics