Daniel Garber and Donald Rutherford (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199659593
- eISBN:
- 9780191745218
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199659593.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth ...
More
Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, very roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes papers on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. Topics covered include Spinoza's political philosophy, Leibniz, monadic domination, Newton's ontology of omnipresence and infinate space, Hume, and Descarte.Less
Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, very roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes papers on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. Topics covered include Spinoza's political philosophy, Leibniz, monadic domination, Newton's ontology of omnipresence and infinate space, Hume, and Descarte.
Benjamin Hill
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199583645
- eISBN:
- 9780191738456
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583645.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This introduction argues for the importance of Suárez’s philosophy for historians of medieval philosophy as well as historians of early modern philosophy. It also provides synopses of each of the ...
More
This introduction argues for the importance of Suárez’s philosophy for historians of medieval philosophy as well as historians of early modern philosophy. It also provides synopses of each of the essays in the volume and a brief biography of Suárez, placing his life and works into some historical context.Less
This introduction argues for the importance of Suárez’s philosophy for historians of medieval philosophy as well as historians of early modern philosophy. It also provides synopses of each of the essays in the volume and a brief biography of Suárez, placing his life and works into some historical context.
Steven Nadler
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199247073
- eISBN:
- 9780191598074
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199247072.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This is a study of the reasons behind Spinoza's excommunication from the Portuguese–Jewish community of Amsterdam in 1656. The central question in the book is how and why did the issue of the ...
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This is a study of the reasons behind Spinoza's excommunication from the Portuguese–Jewish community of Amsterdam in 1656. The central question in the book is how and why did the issue of the immortality of the soul play a role in the decision to excommunicate Spinoza. The work begins with a discussion of the nature of cherem or banning within Judaism, and in the Amsterdam community, in particular, as well as of a number of possible explanations for Spinoza's ban. It then turns to the variety of traditions in Jewish religious and philosophical thought on the post‐mortem fate of the soul and the after life. This is followed by an examination of Spinoza's own views on the eternity of the mind in the Ethics and the role that the denial of personal immortality plays in his overall philosophical and political project. Part of the book's argument is that Spinoza's views were not only an outgrowth of his own metaphysical principles, but also a culmination of an intellectualist trend in medieval Jewish rationalism (especially Maimonides and Gersonides).Less
This is a study of the reasons behind Spinoza's excommunication from the Portuguese–Jewish community of Amsterdam in 1656. The central question in the book is how and why did the issue of the immortality of the soul play a role in the decision to excommunicate Spinoza. The work begins with a discussion of the nature of cherem or banning within Judaism, and in the Amsterdam community, in particular, as well as of a number of possible explanations for Spinoza's ban. It then turns to the variety of traditions in Jewish religious and philosophical thought on the post‐mortem fate of the soul and the after life. This is followed by an examination of Spinoza's own views on the eternity of the mind in the Ethics and the role that the denial of personal immortality plays in his overall philosophical and political project. Part of the book's argument is that Spinoza's views were not only an outgrowth of his own metaphysical principles, but also a culmination of an intellectualist trend in medieval Jewish rationalism (especially Maimonides and Gersonides).
Martin Pickavé and Lisa Shapiro (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199579914
- eISBN:
- 9780191745959
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579914.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This volume has three aims. First, historians of philosophy have typically focused on the discussions of the moral relevance of emotions, and with the exception of scholars of ancient philosophy, ...
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This volume has three aims. First, historians of philosophy have typically focused on the discussions of the moral relevance of emotions, and with the exception of scholars of ancient philosophy, neglected the place of emotions in cognitive life. This collection of articles refocuses the discussion of emotion in the medieval and early modern periods to their role in cognition. Second, though many have aimed to clarify relationship between the later thinkers and their predecessors with regard to issues in metaphysics and epistemology, there has been very little effort at tracing similar lines of thought about emotion. As a whole, the contributions to this volume serve to begin a discussion about the continuities between medieval and early modern thinking about the emotions. In this regard, there is also a discussion of the emotions of cognitive life of the Renaissance. Though we get only a snapshot of a period of philosophical work often passed over, even this snapshot invites questions about how to weave an intellectual history about accounts of our emotions in our cognitive lives. Finally, attention to the concerns that engage philosophers of the medieval, renaissance and early modern periods can inform the contemporary debate regarding the relationship between emotions, cognition, and reason. The thirteen contributions explore this from the point of view of four key themes: the situation of emotions within the human mind; the intentionality of emotions and their role in cognition; emotions and action; the role of emotion in self-understanding and the social situation of individuals.Less
This volume has three aims. First, historians of philosophy have typically focused on the discussions of the moral relevance of emotions, and with the exception of scholars of ancient philosophy, neglected the place of emotions in cognitive life. This collection of articles refocuses the discussion of emotion in the medieval and early modern periods to their role in cognition. Second, though many have aimed to clarify relationship between the later thinkers and their predecessors with regard to issues in metaphysics and epistemology, there has been very little effort at tracing similar lines of thought about emotion. As a whole, the contributions to this volume serve to begin a discussion about the continuities between medieval and early modern thinking about the emotions. In this regard, there is also a discussion of the emotions of cognitive life of the Renaissance. Though we get only a snapshot of a period of philosophical work often passed over, even this snapshot invites questions about how to weave an intellectual history about accounts of our emotions in our cognitive lives. Finally, attention to the concerns that engage philosophers of the medieval, renaissance and early modern periods can inform the contemporary debate regarding the relationship between emotions, cognition, and reason. The thirteen contributions explore this from the point of view of four key themes: the situation of emotions within the human mind; the intentionality of emotions and their role in cognition; emotions and action; the role of emotion in self-understanding and the social situation of individuals.
Roger Ariew
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199583645
- eISBN:
- 9780191738456
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583645.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This essay explores the reception and used of Suárez’s philosophy by two canonical early modern philosophers, René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz. It is argued that Descartes’ theory of distinctions ...
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This essay explores the reception and used of Suárez’s philosophy by two canonical early modern philosophers, René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz. It is argued that Descartes’ theory of distinctions does not betray any indications of being Suárezian, despite many claims to the contrary. Leibniz, however, was a very different reader of Suárez’s works, it is argued, and his thinking about individuation was clearly influenced by Suárez even if he did not adopt the Suárezian position in the endLess
This essay explores the reception and used of Suárez’s philosophy by two canonical early modern philosophers, René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz. It is argued that Descartes’ theory of distinctions does not betray any indications of being Suárezian, despite many claims to the contrary. Leibniz, however, was a very different reader of Suárez’s works, it is argued, and his thinking about individuation was clearly influenced by Suárez even if he did not adopt the Suárezian position in the end
Martin Pickavé and Lisa Shapiro
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199579914
- eISBN:
- 9780191745959
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579914.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
In this introduction, the editors of the volume provide an overview of the volume, drawing out the major themes unifying the thirteen essays of the volume: the place of emotions within the human ...
More
In this introduction, the editors of the volume provide an overview of the volume, drawing out the major themes unifying the thirteen essays of the volume: the place of emotions within the human mind; emotions, intentionality, and cognition; emotions and action; and the role of emotion in self-understanding and the social situation of individuals.Less
In this introduction, the editors of the volume provide an overview of the volume, drawing out the major themes unifying the thirteen essays of the volume: the place of emotions within the human mind; emotions, intentionality, and cognition; emotions and action; and the role of emotion in self-understanding and the social situation of individuals.
Gideon Manning
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780199916429
- eISBN:
- 9780190921293
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199916429.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter examines the connections between medicine and philosophy in the seventeenth century with a particular focus on Anne Conway, Rene Descartes, and thinkers influenced by Descartes such as ...
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This chapter examines the connections between medicine and philosophy in the seventeenth century with a particular focus on Anne Conway, Rene Descartes, and thinkers influenced by Descartes such as Henricus Regius, Jacques Rohault, and Johannes De Raey. It is shown that, despite the strong dualism associated with Descartes, thinkers of the period were very interested in the close connections between body and mind. One problem confronting these thinkers was how to reconcile their mechanistic, anti-teleological understanding of bodies with the normative concept of health. It is also shown that Descartes was intensely concerned with using philosophy to achieve a good state of both mind and body, a project shared by medical authors who adopted the Cartesian system.Less
This chapter examines the connections between medicine and philosophy in the seventeenth century with a particular focus on Anne Conway, Rene Descartes, and thinkers influenced by Descartes such as Henricus Regius, Jacques Rohault, and Johannes De Raey. It is shown that, despite the strong dualism associated with Descartes, thinkers of the period were very interested in the close connections between body and mind. One problem confronting these thinkers was how to reconcile their mechanistic, anti-teleological understanding of bodies with the normative concept of health. It is also shown that Descartes was intensely concerned with using philosophy to achieve a good state of both mind and body, a project shared by medical authors who adopted the Cartesian system.
Warren Boutcher
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198123743
- eISBN:
- 9780191829437
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198123743.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, European Literature
The first chapter of volume one is a prologue to the whole two-volume study, and provides introductions to concepts of reading and writing and self-knowledge, using examples such as Lady Anne ...
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The first chapter of volume one is a prologue to the whole two-volume study, and provides introductions to concepts of reading and writing and self-knowledge, using examples such as Lady Anne Clifford. It applies the Gellian model of social context to the case of texts (with paratexts) understood as portraits or images, and to the documentary record of Montaigne’s role as an unofficial, private judge or mediator in early modern philosophical culture. Two anecdotes about different kinds of artefacts given by scholars to the head of household at Montaigne are discussed: a medical amulet and a philosophical book. But both come with instructions for their use as prophylactics. Both end up being put to modified uses in new circumstances. The gifts themselves, what is done with the gifts, and the anecdotes as printed in the Essais together exemplify the indexing of agency relations within early modern types of art nexus.Less
The first chapter of volume one is a prologue to the whole two-volume study, and provides introductions to concepts of reading and writing and self-knowledge, using examples such as Lady Anne Clifford. It applies the Gellian model of social context to the case of texts (with paratexts) understood as portraits or images, and to the documentary record of Montaigne’s role as an unofficial, private judge or mediator in early modern philosophical culture. Two anecdotes about different kinds of artefacts given by scholars to the head of household at Montaigne are discussed: a medical amulet and a philosophical book. But both come with instructions for their use as prophylactics. Both end up being put to modified uses in new circumstances. The gifts themselves, what is done with the gifts, and the anecdotes as printed in the Essais together exemplify the indexing of agency relations within early modern types of art nexus.
Julie E. Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226081298
- eISBN:
- 9780226081328
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226081328.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter introduces the themes and argument of the book as a whole. Tracing the emergence and development of a secular, non-Augustinian critique of pride in early modern philosophy, this book ...
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This chapter introduces the themes and argument of the book as a whole. Tracing the emergence and development of a secular, non-Augustinian critique of pride in early modern philosophy, this book challenges narratives that equate secularity with human self-deification. The chapter describes the practice of genealogy as the method appropriate to such an investigation. Finally, the chapter challenges the notion of religion prevalent within contemporary political theory, arguing that theological questions are inescapable for modern political theorists.Less
This chapter introduces the themes and argument of the book as a whole. Tracing the emergence and development of a secular, non-Augustinian critique of pride in early modern philosophy, this book challenges narratives that equate secularity with human self-deification. The chapter describes the practice of genealogy as the method appropriate to such an investigation. Finally, the chapter challenges the notion of religion prevalent within contemporary political theory, arguing that theological questions are inescapable for modern political theorists.
Mogens Laerke, Justin E. H. Smith, and Eric Schliesser (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199857142
- eISBN:
- 9780199345427
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199857142.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Almost all philosophers agree that one cannot be properly trained in current philosophy without knowing something of the historical development of the discipline. Beyond acknowledging this ...
More
Almost all philosophers agree that one cannot be properly trained in current philosophy without knowing something of the historical development of the discipline. Beyond acknowledging this requirement, however, there is very little agreement as to what kind of methodology to follow when approaching past philosophical texts and what relationship, exactly, the study of the history of philosophy should have to contemporary philosophy, to the history and philosophy of science, or to intellectual history. This volume takes a measure of the current range of views on this complicated issue. The contributors have been chosen among specialists working in the area of early modern philosophy. It is with the early modern philosophers that basic questions of how to approach them – as colleagues with whom you discuss philosophy in the hallway, or as historical aliens speaking a different philosophical tongue – come up with the greatest urgency. The volume will however be of interest to a wide variety of specialists, teachers, and reflective students of other periods as well. The collection reflects the rapid internationalization of research that has opened up the field to a wide range of approaches within the last decades. The contributors include both specialists in the history of philosophy, as well as philosophers who work primarily on current problems in systematic philosophy but who have a pronounced interest in history.Less
Almost all philosophers agree that one cannot be properly trained in current philosophy without knowing something of the historical development of the discipline. Beyond acknowledging this requirement, however, there is very little agreement as to what kind of methodology to follow when approaching past philosophical texts and what relationship, exactly, the study of the history of philosophy should have to contemporary philosophy, to the history and philosophy of science, or to intellectual history. This volume takes a measure of the current range of views on this complicated issue. The contributors have been chosen among specialists working in the area of early modern philosophy. It is with the early modern philosophers that basic questions of how to approach them – as colleagues with whom you discuss philosophy in the hallway, or as historical aliens speaking a different philosophical tongue – come up with the greatest urgency. The volume will however be of interest to a wide variety of specialists, teachers, and reflective students of other periods as well. The collection reflects the rapid internationalization of research that has opened up the field to a wide range of approaches within the last decades. The contributors include both specialists in the history of philosophy, as well as philosophers who work primarily on current problems in systematic philosophy but who have a pronounced interest in history.
Daniel Garber and Donald Rutherford (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- December 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198829294
- eISBN:
- 9780191867880
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198829294.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth ...
More
Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes work on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. The core of the subject matter is philosophy and its history. But the volume’s chapters reflect the fact that philosophy in the early modern period was much broader in its scope than it is currently taken to be and included a great deal of what now belongs to the natural sciences. Furthermore, philosophy in the period was closely connected with other disciplines, such as theology, and with larger questions of social, political, and religious history. Volume 8 includes chapters dedicated to a wide set of topics in the philosophies of Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Wolff, and Kant.Less
Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes work on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. The core of the subject matter is philosophy and its history. But the volume’s chapters reflect the fact that philosophy in the early modern period was much broader in its scope than it is currently taken to be and included a great deal of what now belongs to the natural sciences. Furthermore, philosophy in the period was closely connected with other disciplines, such as theology, and with larger questions of social, political, and religious history. Volume 8 includes chapters dedicated to a wide set of topics in the philosophies of Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Wolff, and Kant.
Alberto Vanzo
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198748717
- eISBN:
- 9780191814112
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198748717.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter argues for three claims concerning the relation between Christian Wolff’s philosophy and the methodological views of early modern experimental philosophers. First, Wolff’s system relies ...
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This chapter argues for three claims concerning the relation between Christian Wolff’s philosophy and the methodological views of early modern experimental philosophers. First, Wolff’s system relies on experience at every step and his views on experiments, observations, hypotheses, and the a priori are in line with those of experimental philosophers. Second, the study of Wolff’s views demonstrates the influence of experimental philosophy in early eighteenth-century Germany, well before Tetens and Feder endorsed the experimental method in the last three decades of the century. Third, Wolff’s thought is shaped by two distinct, but compatible, methodological commitments: to develop a thoroughly experimental philosophy and to build a system according to a mathematical demonstrative method. References to Wolff’s alleged empiricism and rationalism are best identified with references to his endorsement of the tenets of experimental philosophy and of a mathematical demonstrative method.Less
This chapter argues for three claims concerning the relation between Christian Wolff’s philosophy and the methodological views of early modern experimental philosophers. First, Wolff’s system relies on experience at every step and his views on experiments, observations, hypotheses, and the a priori are in line with those of experimental philosophers. Second, the study of Wolff’s views demonstrates the influence of experimental philosophy in early eighteenth-century Germany, well before Tetens and Feder endorsed the experimental method in the last three decades of the century. Third, Wolff’s thought is shaped by two distinct, but compatible, methodological commitments: to develop a thoroughly experimental philosophy and to build a system according to a mathematical demonstrative method. References to Wolff’s alleged empiricism and rationalism are best identified with references to his endorsement of the tenets of experimental philosophy and of a mathematical demonstrative method.
Risto Saarinen
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199606818
- eISBN:
- 9780191729614
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199606818.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
The authors treated in the study are now discussed together in terms of the systematic inventory created at the end of the first chapter. While the Platonic, Aristotelian, and Stoic-Augustinian ...
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The authors treated in the study are now discussed together in terms of the systematic inventory created at the end of the first chapter. While the Platonic, Aristotelian, and Stoic-Augustinian models of akrasia are all supported by various authors, many thinkers also display combinations of different models in their work. An important red thread going through the whole study is the growing prominence of the idea of inner struggle and wrestling. The vocabulary for describing the nature of this struggle varies considerably, but the moral world of the early modern individual is increasingly depicted in terms of inner wrestling. The chapter closes with two short epilogues in which the broader impact of this phenomenon is shown. First, the inner struggles portrayed in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida are analysed. Second, the discussion of weakness of will in the works of Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz is connected with the results of this study.Less
The authors treated in the study are now discussed together in terms of the systematic inventory created at the end of the first chapter. While the Platonic, Aristotelian, and Stoic-Augustinian models of akrasia are all supported by various authors, many thinkers also display combinations of different models in their work. An important red thread going through the whole study is the growing prominence of the idea of inner struggle and wrestling. The vocabulary for describing the nature of this struggle varies considerably, but the moral world of the early modern individual is increasingly depicted in terms of inner wrestling. The chapter closes with two short epilogues in which the broader impact of this phenomenon is shown. First, the inner struggles portrayed in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida are analysed. Second, the discussion of weakness of will in the works of Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz is connected with the results of this study.
Frederic R. Kellogg
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226523903
- eISBN:
- 9780226524061
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226524061.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter follows Holmes's readings and discussions after returning to Boston in 1864 from the Union Army. Francis Bacon’s empiricism had guided English scientific progress before the American ...
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This chapter follows Holmes's readings and discussions after returning to Boston in 1864 from the Union Army. Francis Bacon’s empiricism had guided English scientific progress before the American Civil War, and Holmes and several Cambridge friends followed a renewed debate over the ground of knowledge and discovery, contextualized by early modern philosophy, a debate engaged in by the scientists William Whewell, John Herschel, and Charles Darwin. It encompassed a disagreement between Whewell and John Stuart Mill over scientific method. Holmes’s often misinterpreted perspective stems from surprising sources, the debate over scientific method and the reformism that drove Mill’s empirical attitude; but this collided in Holmes with his experience of violent ideological conflict, creating a sense of the precariousness of human hopes and accomplishments. His view of conflict resolution contemplated a threshold of failure and resort to violence, as had occurred in 1861. Holmes’s interests, meetings with peers, and research are traced through his personal diaries and reading lists to his early essays from 1870 to 1880. They reveal an inductive turn focused on retrospective translation of particular judgments into legal rules and principles. In addressing the problem of conflict, Holmes added a uniquely social element to the logic of induction.Less
This chapter follows Holmes's readings and discussions after returning to Boston in 1864 from the Union Army. Francis Bacon’s empiricism had guided English scientific progress before the American Civil War, and Holmes and several Cambridge friends followed a renewed debate over the ground of knowledge and discovery, contextualized by early modern philosophy, a debate engaged in by the scientists William Whewell, John Herschel, and Charles Darwin. It encompassed a disagreement between Whewell and John Stuart Mill over scientific method. Holmes’s often misinterpreted perspective stems from surprising sources, the debate over scientific method and the reformism that drove Mill’s empirical attitude; but this collided in Holmes with his experience of violent ideological conflict, creating a sense of the precariousness of human hopes and accomplishments. His view of conflict resolution contemplated a threshold of failure and resort to violence, as had occurred in 1861. Holmes’s interests, meetings with peers, and research are traced through his personal diaries and reading lists to his early essays from 1870 to 1880. They reveal an inductive turn focused on retrospective translation of particular judgments into legal rules and principles. In addressing the problem of conflict, Holmes added a uniquely social element to the logic of induction.
Daniel Garber and Donald Rutherford (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198748717
- eISBN:
- 9780191814112
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198748717.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth ...
More
Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, very roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes work on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. The core of the subject matter is philosophy and its history. But the volume’s chapters reflect the fact that philosophy in the early modern period was much broader in its scope than it is currently taken to be and included a great deal of what now belongs to the natural sciences. Furthermore, philosophy in the period was closely connected with other disciplines, such as theology, and with larger questions of social, political, and religious history. Volume VII includes chapters dedicated to a wide set of topics in the philosophies of Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche, Locke, Wolff, and Kant.Less
Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, very roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes work on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. The core of the subject matter is philosophy and its history. But the volume’s chapters reflect the fact that philosophy in the early modern period was much broader in its scope than it is currently taken to be and included a great deal of what now belongs to the natural sciences. Furthermore, philosophy in the period was closely connected with other disciplines, such as theology, and with larger questions of social, political, and religious history. Volume VII includes chapters dedicated to a wide set of topics in the philosophies of Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche, Locke, Wolff, and Kant.
Emma Gilby
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- April 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198831891
- eISBN:
- 9780191869723
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198831891.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
Descartes’s Fictions traces common movements in early modern philosophy and literary method. This volume reassesses the significance of Descartes’s writing by bringing his philosophical output into ...
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Descartes’s Fictions traces common movements in early modern philosophy and literary method. This volume reassesses the significance of Descartes’s writing by bringing his philosophical output into contact with the literary treatises, exempla, and debates of his age. Arguing that humanist theorizing about the art of poetry represents a vital intellectual context for Descartes’s work, the volume offers readings of the controversies to which this poetic theory gives rise, with particular reference to the genre of tragicomedy, the question of verisimilitude, and the figures of Guez de Balzac and Pierre Corneille. Drawing on what Descartes says about, and to, his many contemporaries and correspondents embedded in the early modern republic of letters, this volume shows that poetics provides a repository of themes and images to which he returns repeatedly: fortune, method, error, providence, passion, and imagination, amongst others. Like the poets and theorists of the early modern period, Descartes is also drawn to the forms of attention that people may bring to his work. This interest finds expression in the mature Cartesian metaphysics of the Meditations, as well as, later, in the moral philosophy of his correspondence with Elisabeth of Bohemia or the Passions of the Soul. Some of the tropes of modern secondary criticism—a comparison of Descartes and Corneille, or the portrayal of Descartes as a ‘tragic’ figure—are also re-evaluated. This volume thus bridges the gap between Cartesian criticism and late-humanist literary culture in France.Less
Descartes’s Fictions traces common movements in early modern philosophy and literary method. This volume reassesses the significance of Descartes’s writing by bringing his philosophical output into contact with the literary treatises, exempla, and debates of his age. Arguing that humanist theorizing about the art of poetry represents a vital intellectual context for Descartes’s work, the volume offers readings of the controversies to which this poetic theory gives rise, with particular reference to the genre of tragicomedy, the question of verisimilitude, and the figures of Guez de Balzac and Pierre Corneille. Drawing on what Descartes says about, and to, his many contemporaries and correspondents embedded in the early modern republic of letters, this volume shows that poetics provides a repository of themes and images to which he returns repeatedly: fortune, method, error, providence, passion, and imagination, amongst others. Like the poets and theorists of the early modern period, Descartes is also drawn to the forms of attention that people may bring to his work. This interest finds expression in the mature Cartesian metaphysics of the Meditations, as well as, later, in the moral philosophy of his correspondence with Elisabeth of Bohemia or the Passions of the Soul. Some of the tropes of modern secondary criticism—a comparison of Descartes and Corneille, or the portrayal of Descartes as a ‘tragic’ figure—are also re-evaluated. This volume thus bridges the gap between Cartesian criticism and late-humanist literary culture in France.
Risto Saarinen
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198791966
- eISBN:
- 9780191834189
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198791966.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Theology
The French reconnaître was already employed by Calvin to depict normative approval. The English ‘acknowledge’, as used by Hobbes and Locke, is a translation of Latin agnosco. While the German ...
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The French reconnaître was already employed by Calvin to depict normative approval. The English ‘acknowledge’, as used by Hobbes and Locke, is a translation of Latin agnosco. While the German anerkennen has strong roots in Hegel, it was used before him by the Enlightenment theologian Spalding. Spalding’s understanding of religious recognition as the first act of believer has influenced the later use of the concept by Schleiermacher, Bultmann, and Barth. These theologians claim that the primary act of recognition is a precondition of later cognitive understanding of religious truths. The ecumenical movement of the twentieth century first adopted the political concept of diplomatic recognition. After Vatican II and Catholic theologians revived the older understanding of recognition as conversion and primary attachment, ecumenists began to speak of mutual recognition as a theological and spiritual event.Less
The French reconnaître was already employed by Calvin to depict normative approval. The English ‘acknowledge’, as used by Hobbes and Locke, is a translation of Latin agnosco. While the German anerkennen has strong roots in Hegel, it was used before him by the Enlightenment theologian Spalding. Spalding’s understanding of religious recognition as the first act of believer has influenced the later use of the concept by Schleiermacher, Bultmann, and Barth. These theologians claim that the primary act of recognition is a precondition of later cognitive understanding of religious truths. The ecumenical movement of the twentieth century first adopted the political concept of diplomatic recognition. After Vatican II and Catholic theologians revived the older understanding of recognition as conversion and primary attachment, ecumenists began to speak of mutual recognition as a theological and spiritual event.
Jonardon Ganeri
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199218745
- eISBN:
- 9780191809774
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199218745.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This book deals with a fascinating and rich episode in the history of philosophy, one from which those who are interested in the nature of modernity and its global origins have a great deal to learn. ...
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This book deals with a fascinating and rich episode in the history of philosophy, one from which those who are interested in the nature of modernity and its global origins have a great deal to learn. Early modernity in India consists in the formation of a new philosophical self, one which makes it possible to meaningfully conceive of oneself as engaging the ancient and the alien in conversation. The ancient texts are now not thought of as authorities to which one must defer, but regarded as the source of insight in the company of which one pursues the quest for truth. This new attitude implies a change in the conception of one's duties towards the past. After reconstructing the historical intellectual context in detail, and developing a suitable methodological framework, the author reviews work on the concept of knowledge, the nature of evidence, the self, the nature of the categories, mathematics, realism, and a new language for philosophy. A study of early modern philosophy in India has much to teach us today — about the nature of modernity as such, about the reform of educational institutions and its relationship to creative research, and about cosmopolitan identities in circumstances of globalisation.Less
This book deals with a fascinating and rich episode in the history of philosophy, one from which those who are interested in the nature of modernity and its global origins have a great deal to learn. Early modernity in India consists in the formation of a new philosophical self, one which makes it possible to meaningfully conceive of oneself as engaging the ancient and the alien in conversation. The ancient texts are now not thought of as authorities to which one must defer, but regarded as the source of insight in the company of which one pursues the quest for truth. This new attitude implies a change in the conception of one's duties towards the past. After reconstructing the historical intellectual context in detail, and developing a suitable methodological framework, the author reviews work on the concept of knowledge, the nature of evidence, the self, the nature of the categories, mathematics, realism, and a new language for philosophy. A study of early modern philosophy in India has much to teach us today — about the nature of modernity as such, about the reform of educational institutions and its relationship to creative research, and about cosmopolitan identities in circumstances of globalisation.
Philippe Hamou and Martine Pécharman (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- July 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198815037
- eISBN:
- 9780191852855
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198815037.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This book is a collection of twelve critical essays, by leading French and Anglo-American scholars on Locke’s relation to Descartes and to Cartesian Philosophers, such as Malebranche, Clauberg, ...
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This book is a collection of twelve critical essays, by leading French and Anglo-American scholars on Locke’s relation to Descartes and to Cartesian Philosophers, such as Malebranche, Clauberg, Arnauld, and Nicole. The essays, preceded by a substantial introduction, cover a large variety of topics from natural philosophy (cosmology) to religion, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and epistemology. The volume underlines Locke’s complex relationship to Descartes and Cartesianism, where stark opposition and subtle family resemblances are tightly intertwined. Since the turn of the twentieth century, the theory of knowledge has been the main locus for the comparison of the two authors. According to an influential historiographical conception, Descartes and Locke form together the spearhead in the ‘epistemological turn’ of early modern philosophy. In bringing together the contributions to this volume, the editors advocate for a shift of emphasis. A precise comparison of Locke’s and Descartes’s positions should cover not only their theory of knowledge, but also their views on natural philosophy, metaphysics, and religion. Their conflicting claims on issues such as cosmic organization, the qualities and nature of bodies, the substance of the soul, God’s government of the world, are relevant not only in their own right to take the full measure of Locke’s intricate relation to Descartes, but also as they allow a better understanding of the epistemological debate that is still running between their heirs.Less
This book is a collection of twelve critical essays, by leading French and Anglo-American scholars on Locke’s relation to Descartes and to Cartesian Philosophers, such as Malebranche, Clauberg, Arnauld, and Nicole. The essays, preceded by a substantial introduction, cover a large variety of topics from natural philosophy (cosmology) to religion, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and epistemology. The volume underlines Locke’s complex relationship to Descartes and Cartesianism, where stark opposition and subtle family resemblances are tightly intertwined. Since the turn of the twentieth century, the theory of knowledge has been the main locus for the comparison of the two authors. According to an influential historiographical conception, Descartes and Locke form together the spearhead in the ‘epistemological turn’ of early modern philosophy. In bringing together the contributions to this volume, the editors advocate for a shift of emphasis. A precise comparison of Locke’s and Descartes’s positions should cover not only their theory of knowledge, but also their views on natural philosophy, metaphysics, and religion. Their conflicting claims on issues such as cosmic organization, the qualities and nature of bodies, the substance of the soul, God’s government of the world, are relevant not only in their own right to take the full measure of Locke’s intricate relation to Descartes, but also as they allow a better understanding of the epistemological debate that is still running between their heirs.
Robert Pasnau
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199567911
- eISBN:
- 9780191725449
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567911.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
The present study seeks to learn something about the metaphysics of substance in light of four rich but for the most part neglected centuries of philosophy, running from the thirteenth through the ...
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The present study seeks to learn something about the metaphysics of substance in light of four rich but for the most part neglected centuries of philosophy, running from the thirteenth through the seventeenth centuries. At no period in the history of philosophy, other than perhaps our own, have metaphysical problems received the sort of sustained attention they received during the later Middle Ages, and never has a whole philosophical tradition come crashing down as quickly and completely as did scholastic philosophy in the seventeenth century. The thirty chapters work through various fundamental metaphysical issues, sometimes focusing more on scholastic thought, sometimes on the seventeenth century. The volume begins with the first challenges to the classical scholasticism of Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas, runs through prominent figures like John Duns Scotus and William Ockham, and ends in the seventeenth century, with the end of the first stage of developments in post‐scholastic philosophy: on the continent, with Descartes and Gassendi, and in England, with Boyle and Locke.Less
The present study seeks to learn something about the metaphysics of substance in light of four rich but for the most part neglected centuries of philosophy, running from the thirteenth through the seventeenth centuries. At no period in the history of philosophy, other than perhaps our own, have metaphysical problems received the sort of sustained attention they received during the later Middle Ages, and never has a whole philosophical tradition come crashing down as quickly and completely as did scholastic philosophy in the seventeenth century. The thirty chapters work through various fundamental metaphysical issues, sometimes focusing more on scholastic thought, sometimes on the seventeenth century. The volume begins with the first challenges to the classical scholasticism of Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas, runs through prominent figures like John Duns Scotus and William Ockham, and ends in the seventeenth century, with the end of the first stage of developments in post‐scholastic philosophy: on the continent, with Descartes and Gassendi, and in England, with Boyle and Locke.
