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27Theo Verbeek, "Descartes and the Dutch: Early Reactions to Cartesian Philosophy, 1637-1650" (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 32 (4): 672. 1994.
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Le Testament de Spinoza (review)Studia Spinozana: An International and Interdisciplinary Series 13 302-304. 1997.
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16Spinoza and Scripture: A Colloquium IntroductionJournal of the History of Ideas 74 (4): 621-622. 2013.
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Hope, fear, and the politics of immortalityIn Tom Sorell & Graham Alan John Rogers (eds.), Analytic Philosophy and History of Philosophy, Oxford University Press. 2005.
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3Reading the Book of Nature in the Dutch Golden Age, 1575–1715 (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 51 (1): 124-125. 2013.
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44The best of all possible worlds: a story of philosophers, God, and evil in the Age of ReasonPrinceton University Press. 2008.Leibniz in Paris -- Philosophy on the Left Bank -- Le Grand Arnauld -- Theodicy -- The kingdoms of nature and grace -- "Touch the mountains and they smoke" -- The eternal truths -- The specter of Spinoza.
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9Reading Bayle Thomas M. Lennon Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999, ix + 202 pp., $60.00, $19.95 paper (review)Dialogue 40 (3): 626-. 2001.
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18Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy Volume 1 (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2003.Oxford University Press is proud to announce an annual volume presenting a selection of the best new work in the history of philosophy. Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy will focus 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 will also publish papers on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating ear…Read more
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145Descartes and occasional causationBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 2 (1). 1994.After a brief analysis of the nature of occasional causation, distinguishing it from both efficient causation and the doctrine of occasionalism, it is argued that this model of causation informs Descartes' account of the generation of sensory ideas in the mind. It is further argued that, consequently, Descartes is not an occasionalist on this matter
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8New Essays on the Rationalists (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 38 (3): 437-439. 2000.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:New Essays on the RationalistsSteven NadlerRocco J. Gennaro and Charles Huenemann, editors. New Essays on the Rationalists. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Pp. xvii + 391. Cloth, $60.00.Here is yet another collection of essays on early modern philosophy. The focus this time is on the Seventeenth century, in particular "the rationalists." What this apparently involves is, as the old-fashioned classification has it, …Read more
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9Occult Powers and Hypotheses: Cartesian Natural Philosophy under Louis XIV. Desmond M. ClarkeIsis 81 (4): 772-773. 1990.
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1Could Spinoza Have Presented the Ethics as the True Content of the Bible?Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy 4 1-50. 2008.
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25Spinoza: L'expérience et l'éternitéJournal of the History of Philosophy 34 (1): 143-145. 1996.BOOK REVIEWS 143 level of ignorance. I was, for example, surprised to learn that haecceitas is a compara- tively rare term in Scotus rather than signate matter. In his Introduction and Epilogue Gracia nicely counterbalances the tendency to- ward fragmentation stemming from the disparate accounts of individuality in the various thinkers represented in the volume. He does this, first, by highlighting for the reader the basic issues surrounding the problem of individuality, such as the concep- tion…Read more
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27Cartesianism and Port-Royal in Descartes and His ContemporariesThe Monist 71 (4): 573-584. 1988.CONTRARY TO WHAT APPEARS TO BE POPULAR BELIEF, PORT-ROYAL WAS NOT A BASTION OF CARTESIANISM. IN FACT, OF ALL THE PORT-ROYALISTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, ONLY ARNAULD CAN BE CONSIDERED A CARTESIAN IN ANY INTERESTING SENSE. MOST OF THE OTHERS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ORDER WERE HOSTILE TO THE NEW PHILOSOPHY AND ACTIVELY CAMPAIGNED AGAINST IT, BELIEVING IT TO POSE A THREAT TO PIETY AND "TRUE" RELIGION. THIS CAN BE SEEN BY EXAMINING THE WRITINGS OF DE SACY, DU VAUCEL, AND NICOLE, AND THE VARIOUS PHILO…Read more
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68Malebranche's occasionalism: A reply to ClarkeJournal of the History of Philosophy 33 (3): 505-508. 1995.
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14Lectures de Descartes ed. by Frédéric de Buzon, Élodie Cassan, and Denis KambouchnerJournal of the History of Philosophy 54 (1): 168-169. 2016.A fair number of recent monographs and essay collections on Descartes cover the same old ground, rehashing well-worn problems and taking us for another tour in Cartesian circles. Much to be preferred are those studies that go beyond the familiar and truly advance our understanding of Cartesian metaphysics, epistemology, science, ethics, and philosophical theology, especially with new insights into their complex relationships. The best anthologies will also contain original essays by both well-es…Read more
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11Spinoza and Medieval Jewish Philosophy (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2014.Over the last two decades there has been an increasing interest in the influence of medieval Jewish thought upon Spinoza's philosophy. The essays in this volume, by Spinoza specialists and leading scholars in the field of medieval Jewish philosophy, consider the various dimensions of the rich, important, but vastly under-studied relationship between Spinoza and earlier Jewish thinkers. It is the first such collection in any language, and together the essays provide a detailed and extensive analy…Read more
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15Berkeley’s Ideas and the Primary/Secondary DistinctionCanadian Journal of Philosophy 20 (1): 47-61. 1990.Part of Berkeley's strategy in his attack on materialism in the Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous is to argue that the epistemological distinction between ideas of so-called primary qualities and ideas of secondary qualities, especially as this distinction is found in Locke, is untenable. Both kinds of ideas-those presenting to the mind the quantifiable properties of bodies and those which are just sensations -are equally perceptions in the mind, and there is no reason to believe that …Read more
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23Francis X. J. Coleman, "Neither Angel nor Beast. The Life and Work of Blaise Pascal" (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 26 (3): 489. 1988.
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9Review of Adam Sutcliffe, Judaism and Enlightenment (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2003 (5). 2003.
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Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy Volume V (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2010.Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy presents 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.
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138Spinoza on Lying and SuicideBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 24 (2): 257-278. 2016.Spinoza is often taken to claim that suicide is never a rational act, that a ‘free’ person acting by the guidance of reason will never terminate his/her own existence. Spinoza also defends the prima facie counterintuitive claim that the rational person will never act dishonestly. This second claim can, in fact, be justified when Spinoza's moral psychology and account of motivation are properly understood. Moreover, making sense of the free man's exception-less honesty in this way also helps to c…Read more
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1Doctrines of explanation in late scholasticism and in the mechanical philosophyIn Daniel Garber & Michael Ayers (eds.), The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy, Cambridge University Press. pp. 2--513. 1998.
Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |