{"product_id":"this-is-modern-philosophy-isbn-9781118686904","title":"This Is Modern Philosophy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eProvides students and general readers with a basic understanding of the central concepts, issues, and thinkers of the early modern era of philosophy\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIs there a world that exists apart from ourselves? If an external world exists, what is its nature? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCan an external world based on evidence from our sense perception be known? How do such questions arise? Is it even possible for them to be answered? \u003ci\u003eThis is Modern Philosophy: An Introduction \u003c\/i\u003esurveys how philosophers from the late sixteenth century to the early nineteenth century investigated central metaphysical and epistemological issues. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFocusing on six key philosophers, this accessible volume provides readers with a solid and balanced appreciation of how philosophy was done in the Modern period. Each chapter explores the views of a particular thinker—René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, George Berkeley, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Lady Mary Shepherd—with special attention paid to their engagement with ‘The Problem of the External World.’ Throughout the book, readers are invited to consider related philosophical problems and doctrines, such as transcendental idealism, mind-body dualism, and skepticism. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003eIntroduces a range of philosophical concepts, including materialism, idealism, rationalism, and empiricism\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eDiscusses how the philosophical views from each of the philosophers covered are similar and different\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eAddresses the views of other important thinkers such as John Locke and Adam Smith\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eFeatures an epilogue that helps readers locate other important philosophers from different historical periods\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eProvides links to high-quality online editions and translations of primary texts that are freely available to students \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart of Wiley-Blackwell’s popular\u003ci\u003e This Is Philosophy \u003c\/i\u003eseries, \u003ci\u003eThis is Modern Philosophy: An Introduction \u003c\/i\u003eis an invaluable resource for undergraduate students in Early Modern philosophy courses, graduate philosophy students looking to refresh their knowledge, and general readers looking for an easy-to-read introduction to the subject. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcknowledgements vii\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIntroduction 1\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eI.1 Knowledge as \u003ci\u003eScientia \u003c\/i\u003e2\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eI.2 Ideas, Propositions, and Beliefs 5\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eI.3 The idea of a Modern Philosophy Course 11\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eI.4 Rationalism and Empiricism 12\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eI.5 Some Other “isms” of the Period 14\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eI.6 The Problem of the External World 16\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e1 René Descartes 21\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.1 Descartes’s First Principle 21\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.2 Preliminaries on Ideas and the Ontology 39\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.3 Clarity and Distinctness: A Model Based on Simple Natures 51\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.4 The Idea of the Infinite Being: A Proof for God’s existence 57\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.5 Why God, Creator of Descartes’s Mind, Cannot be Understood as Being a Deceiver 64\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.6 The Problem of the External World Continued: The Case for a Material World 68\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eReference 74\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e2 Thomas Hobbes 75\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.1 Hobbes’s Materialism 75\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.2 Hobbes’s View of Mind 77\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.3 Concept-Pairs 83\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.4 A Body Cannot be the Origin of Its Own Motion 88\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.5 A Proof for the Existence of an External World 90\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eReference 91\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e3 George Berkeley 92\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.1 Berkeley’s Rejection of a Material World 92\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.2 Abstraction versus Exclusion 94\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.3 Objects are Collections of Ideas 101\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.4 The Problem of the External World Answered: The Omni-perceiver 134\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.5 Possible Common Ground 143\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e4 David Hume 147\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e4.1 Hume on Impressions and Ideas 148\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e4.2 The Idea of Cause and Effect 152\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e4.3 Object and Existence 156\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e4.4 Unity and Identity 159\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e4.5 Constancy, Coherence, Continued Existence, and Distinct Existence 161\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e5 Immanuel Kant 167\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e5.1 Kant’s Critical Period 167\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e5.2 Knowledge: Preliminaries 169\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e5.3 Transcendental Philosophy 171\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e5.4 Two Distinctions and the Category of Synthetic \u003ci\u003ea priori \u003c\/i\u003ePropositions 175\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e5.5 The External World 192\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eReferences 202\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e6 Lady Mary Shepherd 203\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e6.1 Cause and Effect, and a Proof of the External World 203\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e6.2 Hume and The Problem of the External World 205\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e6.3 Consciousness and Sensation 206\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e6.4 A Commonsense Reading 227\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eReferences 230\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEpilogue 232\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIndex 239\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eKURT SMITH\u003c\/b\u003e is a Professor of Philosophy at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, USA. He has participated in three competitive National Endowment for the Humanities summer programs focused on Early Modern Philosophy and has been a Visiting Scholar at Princeton University. Professor Smith is the author of several monographs, book chapters, journal articles, and encyclopedia entries.   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eIs there a world that exists apart from ourselves? If an external world exists, what is its nature? How do such questions arise? Is it even possible for them to be answered?\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThis Is Modern Philosophy\u003c\/i\u003e, author Kurt Smith offers an accessible overview of the central concepts and philosophers of the early modern era. Covering the time from the late sixteenth century to the early nineteenth century, this engaging volume explores how six key thinkers built distinct philosophical frameworks, investigated important metaphysical and epistemological issues and contributed to the Western philosophical tradition. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFocusing on how René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, George Berkeley, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Lady Mary Shepherd approached the ‘External World Problem,’ the text also familiarizes readers with foundational philosophical doctrines such as materialism, idealism, rationalism, empiricism, mind-body dualism, skepticism, and more. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eProviding links to quality editions and translations of primary texts that are freely available online, \u003ci\u003eThis Is Modern Philosophy: An Introduction\u003c\/i\u003e is a must-have for undergraduate students taking courses on early modern philosophy, graduate philosophy students looking to refresh their philosophical knowledge of the period, and general readers wanting to understand how philosophy was done in the modern period.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wiley-Blackwell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47990388064485,"sku":"NP9781118686904","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781118686904.jpg?v=1761787624","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/this-is-modern-philosophy-isbn-9781118686904","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}