Oxford University Press New Essays on the Rationalists

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. 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 Review 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 Review 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.