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11Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, Volume VII (edited book)Oxford University Press UK. 2015.Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting 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. It also publishes papers on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. The artic…Read more
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2Leibniz on SpontaneityIn Donald Rutherford & J. A. Cover (eds.), Leibniz: nature and freedom, Oxford University Press. pp. 156--80. 2005.
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62Leibniz and the Problem of Monadic AggregationArchiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 76 (1): 65-90. 1994.
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87The Cambridge companion to early modern philosophy (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2006.The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy is a comprehensive introduction to the central topics and changing shape of philosophical inquiry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It explores one of the most innovative periods in the history of Western philosophy, extending from Montaigne, Bacon and Descartes through Hume and Kant. During this period, philosophers initiated and responded to major intellectual developments in natural science, religion, and politics, transforming in …Read more
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10The Leibniz-des Bosses Correspondence (edited book)Yale University Press. 2007.This volume is a critical edition of the ten-year correspondence between Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, one of Europe’s most influential early modern thinkers, and Bartholomew Des Bosses, a Jesuit theologian who was keen to bring together Leibniz’s philosophy and the Aristotelian philosophy and religious doctrines accepted by his order. The letters offer crucial insights into Leibniz’s final metaphysics and into the intellectual life of the eighteenth century. Brandon C. Look and Donald Rutherford p…Read more
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16Nicholas Jolley, "The Light of the Soul: Theories of Ideas in Leibniz, Malebranche, and Descartes" (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 29 (4): 678. 1991.
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17Leibniz’s ‘New System’ and Associated Contemporary Texts (review)International Philosophical Quarterly 39 (2): 229-230. 1999.
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63Leibniz's "analysis of multitude and phenomena into unities and reality"Journal of the History of Philosophy 28 (4): 525-552. 1990.
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177Freedom as a Philosophical Ideal: Nietzsche and His AntecedentsInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 54 (5). 2011.Abstract Nietzsche defends an ideal of freedom as the achievement of a ?higher human being?, whose value judgments are a product of a rigorous scrutiny of inherited values and an expression of how the answers to ultimate questions of value are ?settled in him?. I argue that Nietzsche's view is a recognizable descendent of ideas advanced by the ancient Stoics and Spinoza, for whom there is no contradiction between the realization of freedom and the affirmation of fate, and who restrict this freed…Read more
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133Salvation as a state of mind: The place of acquiescentia in Spinoza's ethicsBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 7 (3). 1999.(1999). Salvation as a state of mind: The place of acquiescentia in spinoza's ethics. British Journal for the History of Philosophy: Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 447-473. doi: 10.1080/09608789908571039
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10Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy Volume VI (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2012.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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10Leibniz’ Universal Jurisprudence (review)The Leibniz Review 7 85-94. 1997.Leibniz was introduced to the English-speaking world in the twentieth century by Bertrand Russell’s Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz, a book that at once hailed the depth and elegance of Leibniz’s logico-metaphysical scheme and scorned his ethical theory. In the intervening years, Russell’s book has stimulated a large body of commentary, which has led to a sophisticated understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of Leibniz’s metaphysics. Predictably, Leibniz’s practical philos…Read more
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53Leibniz and the Problem of Soul-Body UnionThe Leibniz Review 2 19-21. 1992.A number of recent authors have raised the question of Leibniz’s commitment, during the 1680s and after, to the reality of corporeal substances. In contrast to the standard reading of him as embracing early on a view of substance which is in all essential respects that of the “Monadology”, it has been argued that Leibniz is in fact inclined to recognize two distinct types of substance: on the one hand, unextended soul-like substances ; on the other hand, quasi-Aristotelian corporeal substances. …Read more
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329. Leibniz and the Stoics: The Consolations of TheodicyIn Michael J. Latzer & Elmar J. Kremer (eds.), The Problem of Evil in Early Modern Philosophy, University of Toronto Press. pp. 138-164. 2001.
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38Substance & Individuation in Leibniz (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 39 (4): 591-592. 2001.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Philosophy 39.4 (2001) 591-592 [Access article in PDF] J. A. Cover and John O'Leary-Hawthorne. Substance & Individuation in Leibniz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. x + 307. Cloth, $59.95. This close engagement with Leibniz's modal metaphysics is as rewarding as it is challenging. Crisply written and tightly argued, the book aims to achieve a balance between what the authors describe as thei…Read more
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13Natures, Laws, and Miracles: The Roots of Leibniz's Critique of OccasionalismIn Steven Nadler (ed.), Causation in Early Modern Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 135--58. 1993.Leibniz raises three main objections to the doctrine of occasionalism: (1) it is inconsistent with the supposition of finite substances; (2) it presupposes the occurrence of "perpetual miracles"; (3) it requires that God "disturb" the ordinary laws of nature. At issue in objection (1) is the proper understanding of divine omnipotence, and of the relationship between the power of God and that of created things. I argue that objections (2) and (3), on the other hand, derive from a particular conce…Read more
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51Leibniz’s “On Generosity,” With English TranslationThe Leibniz Review 12 15-21. 2002.The essay “On Generosity” holds a special place among Leibniz’s ethical writings. In no other text does Leibniz give such prominence to the concept of generosity, or relate it to his central doctrine of justice as the charity of the wise. The circumstances of the piece’s composition are uncertain. Watermark dating of the paper places it in the period 1686-1687. The Academy editors suggest a connection between it and a text by an unknown author, “Discours sur la generosité,” a transcription of wh…Read more
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19G. W. Leibniz's Monadology: An Edition for Students. Nicholas Rescher (review)Isis 83 (4): 662-663. 1992.
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115Spinoza and the dictates of reasonInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 51 (5). 2008.Spinoza presents the “dictates of reason” as the foundation of “the right way of living”. An influential reading of his position assimilates it to that of Hobbes. The dictates of reason are normative principles that prescribe necessary means to a necessary end: self-preservation. Against this reading I argue that, for Spinoza, the term “dictates of reason” does not refer to a set of prescriptive principles but simply the necessary consequences, or effects, of the mind's determination by adequate…Read more
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Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy: Volume Iv (edited book)Oxford University Press UK. 2012.Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting 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. It also publishes papers on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought.
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127 Malebranche's TheodicyIn Steven Nadler (ed.), The Cambridge companion to Malebranche, Cambridge University Press. pp. 165. 2000.
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90Leibniz and the Rational Order of NatureCambridge University Press. 1995.This is the most up-to-date and comprehensive interpretation of the philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Amongst its other virtues, it makes considerable use of unpublished manuscript sources. The book seeks to demonstrate the systematic unity of Leibniz's thought, in which theodicy, ethics, metaphysics and natural philosophy cohere. The key, underlying idea of the system is the conception of nature as an order designed by God to maximise the opportunities for the exercise of reason. From th…Read more
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28Leibniz: An intellectual biography (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 48 (1). 2009.This is a superbly crafted and exhaustively researched account of the development of Leibniz’s thought, his ambitious plans and undertakings, his myriad intellectual engagements, and his ceaseless comings and goings across Europe. It captures, accurately and in great detail, the remarkably expansive mind of a singularly creative thinker. It is an extraordinary achievement, for the task of writing an intellectual biography of Leibniz is huge. To read even a portion of what he wrote and read, in t…Read more
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13The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 37 (1): 165-168. 1999.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy by Daniel Garber, Michael AyersDonald RutherfordDaniel Garber, Michael Ayers, editors. The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xii + 1616. Cloth, $175.Over a decade in preparation, this latest addition to the Cambridge History of Philosophy is an enormous achievement—both in its size and the co…Read more
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