Synopses & Reviews
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries provide the tools to teach the history of modern moral philosophy. What makes this selection distinctive is that it covers not only the familiar figures - Hobbes, Hume, Butler, Bentham and Kant - but also the important but generally ignored writers: new translations of Nicole, Wolff, Crusius and d'Holbach; as well as substantial excerpts from natural law theorists such as Suarez, Grotius and Pufendorf; from rationalists such as Malebranche, Cudworth, Spinoza and Leibniz; from Epicurean writers such as Gassendi; and from their 'moral sense' and other critics: Shaftesbury, Hutcheson and Price. In all, thirty-two authors are represented. The selections are preceded by a substantial contextual introduction, while each individual selection has a separate introduction, annotation and bibliography, and has been chosen for its centrality to a given philosopher's writings. The anthology can be used as an introductory survey or for more intensive graduate work as well. It can also be used as supplemental reading for courses on modern European intellectual history, the history of modern political thought, and the history of religious thought.
Review
"This collection is so significant a contribution to our understanding of the development of moral thought and the relation of religion and morality, so nearly perfect an historical anthology, that one hesitates to mention any reservations....this anthology belongs in every university library," Thomas Kennedy, Religious Studies Review
Synopsis
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries provide the tools to teach the history of modern moral philosophy. What makes this selection distinctive is that it covers not only the familiar figures - Hobbes, Hume, Butler, Bentham and Kant - but also the important but generally ignored writers: new translations of Nicole, Wolff, Crusius and d'Holbach; as well as substantial excerpts from natural law theorists such as Suarez, Grotius and Pufendorf; from rationalists such as Malebranche, Cudworth, Spinoza and Leibniz; from Epicurean writers such as Gassendi; and from their 'moral sense' and other critics: Shaftesbury, Hutcheson and Price. In all, thirty-two authors are represented. The selections are preceded by a substantial contextual introduction, while each individual selection has a separate introduction, annotation and bibliography, and has been chosen for its centrality to a given philosopher's writings.
Table of Contents
Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Prolegomena: some questions raised Montaigne: Apology for Raymond Sebond of Repentance of Vanity of Physiognomy of Experience I. REWORKING NATURAL LAW Suarez: On Law and God the Lawgiver Grotius: The Law of War and Peace Hobbes: Philosophical Rudiments concerning Government and Society Cumberland: A Treatise on the Laws of Nature Pufendorf: On the Duty of Man and Citizen The Law of Nature and of Nations Locke: An Essay concerning Human Understanding The Reasonableness of Christianity II. INTELLECT AND MORALITY Duvair: The Moral Philosophy of the Stoics Decartes: Discourse on Method Principles of Philosophy Correspondence with Princess Elizabeth and Queen Christina Sixth Set of Replies to Objections to the Meditations Spinoza: A Treatise on Religion and Politics Ethics Malebranche: Treatise of Morality Cudworth: A Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality Clarke: A Discourse concerning the Unchangeable Obligations of Natural Religion Leibniz: The Principles of Nature and Grace, based on Reason On Wisdom Felicity Meditation on the Common Concept of Justice Codex Iuris Gentium (Praefatio) The Principles of Pufendorf Wolff: Reasonable Thoughts about the Actions of Man.