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8WilliamsIn Christopher Belshaw & Gary Kemp (eds.), 12 Modern Philosophers, Wiley-blackwell. 2009.This paper discusses the contributions of Bernard Williams to Moral and Political Philosophy.
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8IV. Metaphysical foundations for natural scienceIn Leibniz's Metaphysics: A Historical and Comparative Study, Princeton University Press. pp. 121-157. 1990.
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8The Theory of Drive: The Dual Legacy of Leibniz’s Theory of AppetitionIn Manja Kisner & Jörg Noller (eds.), The Concept of Drive in Classical German Philosophy: Between Biology, Anthropology, and Metaphysics, Palgrave-macmillan. pp. 11-37. 2021.Leibniz’s metaphysics has been cited as a source of the dynamic and organic worldview of romantic Naturphilosophie. This chapter evaluates that claim by examining two distinct lineages of Leibniz’s metaphysical conception of dynamic appetition. On one hand, by demonstrating the existence of a “vis viva” in inanimate objects and by ascribing two distinct powers—perception and appetition—to all plants and animals as well as to his incorporeal “monads,” Leibniz seemed to restore force to physics an…Read more
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8Some Motives and Incentives to the Study of Natural PhilosophyIn Moritz Epple & Claus Zittel (eds.), Science as Cultural Practice: Vol. I: Cultures and Politics of Research From the Early Modern Period to the Age of Extremes, Akademie Verlag. pp. 13-30. 2010.
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8The Biological Basis and Ideational Superstructure of MoralityCanadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 26 (sup1): 210-244. 2000.If moral epistemology can be naturalized, there must be genuine moral knowledge, knowledge of what it is morally right for someone or even everyone to do in a particular situation. The naturalist hopes to explain how such knowledge can be acquired by ordinary empirical means, without appealing to a special realm of moral facts separate from the rest of nature, and a special faculty equipped to detect them. Various learning mechanisms for acquiring moral knowledge have been proposed. Most, howeve…Read more
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7Jacques Maritain and Eduardo Frei MontalvaJournal of Interdisciplinary Studies 21 (1-2): 83-105. 2009.Eduardo Frei Montalva, co-founder of the Christian Democratic Party and President of Chile, represented for Jacques Maritain, French neo-Thomist philosopher, an example of prophetic leadership in contemporary times. According to Maritain, modem democracy could not survive without a profound spiritual revolution of political leadership--the "prophetic factor" of democracy--which he observed in Frei as a public official, senator, and ultimately the Presient of the Republic of Chile (1964-1970). Un…Read more
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7Leibniz et Ficino: vie, activité, matière. Leibniz und Ficino: Leben, Aktivität, MaterieStudia Leibnitiana 49 (2): 243. 2017.Although Leibniz characterised himself in the “New Essays” as a “Platonic” as opposed to a “Democritean” philosopher, his intellectual relationship with the most famous of the Renaissance Neoplatonists, Marsilio Ficino, has received little attention. Here we review what can be thus far established regarding Leibniz’s acquaintance with portions of Ficino’s Opera omnia of 1576. We compare Ficino’s disenchantment with the atomistic materialism of Lucretius, which he had favoured in his youth, and h…Read more
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7How to be an epicurean: the ancient art of living wellBasic Books. 2019.A leading philosopher shows that if the pursuit of happiness is the question, Epicureanism is the answer Epicureanism has a reputation problem, bringing to mind gluttons with gout or an admonition to eat, drink, and be merry. In How to Be an Epicurean, philosopher Catherine Wilson shows that Epicureanism isn't an excuse for having a good time: it's a means to live a good life. Although modern conveniences and scientific progress have significantly improved our quality of life, many of the proble…Read more
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6Thomas Kuhn: A Philosophical History for Our Times by Steve Fuller (review)Isis 92 436-437. 2001.
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6Leibniz and Clarke: A Study of Their Correspondence by Ezio Vailati (review)Isis 91 155-156. 2000.
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6The Enlightenment Philosopher as Social CriticIntellectual History Review 18 (3): 413-425. 2008.No abstract
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6III. The Discourse on MetaphysicsIn Leibniz's Metaphysics: A Historical and Comparative Study, Princeton University Press. pp. 79-120. 1990.
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6K. Okruhlik and JR Brown, eds., The Natural Philosophy of Leibniz Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 7 (1): 11-13. 1987.
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6VI. Leibniz’s theories of space, motion, and gravityIn Leibniz's Metaphysics: A Historical and Comparative Study, Princeton University Press. pp. 203-231. 1990.
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5Donald Rutherford, Leibniz and the Rational Order of Nature Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 16 (4): 287-289. 1996.
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5V. Atom, substance, soulIn Leibniz's Metaphysics: A Historical and Comparative Study, Princeton University Press. pp. 158-202. 1990.
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5The moral epistemology of Locke's EssayIn Lex Newman (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding", Cambridge University Press. 2007.
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5Philosophical and Scientific Empiricism and Rationalism in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth CenturiesIn Anne-Lise Rey & Siegfried Bodenmann (eds.), What Does It Mean to Be an Empiricist?: Empiricisms in Eighteenth Century Sciences, Springer Verlag. pp. 123-138. 2018.The paper critically evaluates two commonplaces of historiography. One is that Empiricism as a philosophical movement of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was opposed to Rationalism corresponding to an English-Continental division of personnel. The other commonplace is the view that the main accomplishments of eighteenth century science were mainly taxonomic in contrast to the remarkable conceptual innovations of Galileo, Descartes and Newton. I point instead, as characteristic of e…Read more
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5Possibility, Plenitude, and the Optimal World: Rescher on Leibniz’s CosmologyIn Robert Almeder (ed.), Rescher Studies: A Collection of Essays on the Philosophical Work of Nicholas Rescher, De Gruyter. pp. 477-492. 2008.
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5LeibnizDartmouth Publishing Company. 2001.A collection of essays covering a range of topics related to Leibniz. The monads and the pre-established harmony make numerous appearances, and so do Leibniz's discussions of causality, relations, individuation, nature, freedom, consciousness, and divinity. In addition to sections on Leibniz's physics and his theory of substance, a number of papers are included on his philosophy of mind that draw heavily on the New Essays, along with several articles on metaphysical and theological issues, and a…Read more
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4AcknowledgementsIn Leibniz's Metaphysics: A Historical and Comparative Study, Princeton University Press. 1990.
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4Les Modèles du vivant de Descartes à Leibniz (review)The Leibniz Review 12 123-127. 2002.Nowadays “philosophy of biology” is taken to be the special study of a set of issues concerning selection, adaptation, and the characterization of a species. Though the reduction of biology to chemistry and physics remained a topic in the general philosophy of science syllabus through the 1970s, the concept of life subsequently lost even this marginal foothold in the curriculum. Hans.
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4Naomi Zack, Bachelors of Science: Seventeenth-Century Identity, Then and Now Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 17 (4): 303-305. 1997.
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4Descartes and AugustineIn Janet Broughton & John Carriero (eds.), A Companion to Descartes, Blackwell. 2007.This chapter contains section titled: Two Seekers After Truth Coincidence and Divergence The Good World Doctrine Appendix: Passages Relating to Shared Doctrines in Augustine and Descartes References and Further Reading.
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4I. language, logic, encyclopediaIn Leibniz's Metaphysics: A Historical and Comparative Study, Princeton University Press. pp. 7-44. 1990.
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3Introduction — Social Inequality: Rousseau in RetrospectCanadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 25 1-30. 1999.
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3Introduction: Social inequality: Rousseau in retrospectCanadian Journal of Philosophy. Supplementary Volume 25 (Supplement): 1-30. 1999.
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3Before, Above, Beneath, BelowPhilosophical Topics 43 (1-2): 1-12. 2015.In this paper I discuss the largely obsolete notion of ‘metaphysical foundations for science’ and the problems of representation, truth, and embodiment in Descartes identified by Adrian Moore. I explain why rather than enaging in a project of pure inquiry Descartes needed to fit the pursuit and findings of the physical and life sciences into a theological framework. His much misunderstood scientifc image of the human being as a psychosomatic unity is defended as coherent and influential, as is h…Read more
Catherine Wilson
CUNY Graduate Center
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CUNY Graduate CenterDistinguished Professor (Part-time)
Areas of Specialization
Meta-Ethics |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |
Social and Political Philosophy |