Renaissance and Early Modern Philosophy, Volume XXVI

In this volume leading contemporary philosophical historians of the Renaissance and Early Modern periods examine the works of important figures of the fifteenth through the eighteenth century. While Midwest Studies in Philosophy has produced other volumes devoted to historical periods in philosophy, this is the first to offer such extensive and focused original materials on specific crucial figures as this volume.

• Original papers by twenty contemporary philosophers writing about the works of the major philosophers of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth centuries
• This historically and philosophically broad collection extends from such fifteenth century figures as Ficino, Machiavelli, and Pompanazzi to the work of Montesquieu in the eighteenth century

Thomas Malory (ca. 1405-1471).

"Always to do ladies, damosels, and gentlewomen succour": Women and the Chivalric Code in Malory’s Morte Darthur (Felicia Ackerman).

Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464).

Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464): First Modern Philospher (Jasper Hopkins).

Marsilius Ficino (1433-1499).

Marsilio Ficino on Significatio (Michael J.B. Allen).

Pietro Pomponazzi (1462-1525).

Pomponazzi: Moral Virtue in a Deterministic Universe (John L. Treloar).

John Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494).

The Secret of Pico’s Oration: Cabala and Renaissance Philosophy (Brian P. Copenhaver).

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527).

Between Republic and Monarchy? Liberty, Security, and the Kingdom of France in Machiavelli (Cary J. Nederman and Tatiana V. Gómez).

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592).

Montaigne, An Apology for Raymond Sebond: Happiness and the Poverty of Reason (Bruce Silver).

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600).

The Natural Philosophy of Giordano Bruno (Hilary Gatti).

Francis Bacon (1561-1626).

Francis Bacon and the Humanistic Aspects of Modernity (Rose-Mary Sargent).

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679).

Hobbes’s Atheism (Douglas M. Jesseph).

Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655).

New Wine in Old Bottles: Gassendi and the Aristotelian Origin of Physics (Margaret J. Osler).

Rene Descartes (1596-1650).

Descartes, Mechanics, and the Mechanical Philosophy (Daniel Garber).

Antoine Arnauld (1612-1694).

"Presence" and "Likeness" in Arnauld’s Critique of Malebranche (Nancy Kendrick).

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662).

Pascal’s Wagers (Jeff Jordan).

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) and Levi ben Gershon (Gersonides) Eternity and Immortality in Spinoza’s Ethics (Steven Nadler).

Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715).

Occasionalism and Efficacious Laws in Malebranche (Nicholas Jolley).

Pierre Bayle (1647-1706).

What Kind of a Skeptic Was Bayle (Thomas M. Lennon).

Charles de Montesquieu (1689-1755.

From Locke’s Letter to Montesquieu’s Lettres (Edwin Curley).

Contributors.

Howard K. Wettstein is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. He has taught at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Minnesota, Morris, and has served as visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa and Stanford University. He has published articles on the philosophy of language and the philosophy of religion and is the author of Has Semantics Rested on a Mistake? And other Essays (1992). He is currently finishing a book on the philosophy of language.

Peter A. French is the Lincoln Chair in Ethics and the Director of the Lincoln Center for Aplied Ethics at Arizona State University. He was the Cole Chair In Ethics, Director of The Ethics Center, and Chair of the Department of Philosophy of the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and served as Exxon Distinguished Research Professor in the Center for the Study of Values at the University of Delaware. He is the author of seventeen books including Cowboy Metaphysics: Ethics and Death in Westerns; Corporate Ethics; Responsibility Matters; Corporations in the Moral Community; The Spectrum of Responsibility; Collective and Corporate Responsibility; Corrigible Corporations and Unruly Laws; Ethics in Government; and The Scope of Morality. His most recent book, The Virtues of Vengeance, was published in April 2001. He has published dozens of articles in the major philosophical and legal journals and review, many of which have been anthologized.

Renaissance and Early Modern Philosophy presents original papers by 20 contemporary philosophers writing about the works of the major philosophers of the Fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Issues and arguments that dominated the historical periods of their subjects are explored, providing fresh insights into the work of some pivotal philosophers such as Descartes, Spinoza, and Locke, and extending the boundaries of discussion concerning their role in the history of philosophy. Furthermore, exciting and fresh perspectives are cast on some lesser-known philosophers whose work has not been studied as seriously and rigorously as their works merit. The scope of the volume is historically and philosophically broad, extending from fifteenth century figures as Ficino, Machiavelli, and Pompanazzi to the work of Montesquieu in the eighteenth century. Renaissance and Early Modern Philosophy will be a major resource for anyone pursuing serious study of this important period in the development of Western Philosophy.