•  19
    New Essays on the Rationalists
    Philosophical Review 110 (4): 600. 2001.
    Dr. Johnson famously observed that in lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath. This observation applies with equal force to publishers and their advertisements for books. According to the blurb, the present volume “offers essential critical material for both novice and advanced scholars of early modern philosophy.” In fact, it would be a remarkably sophisticated novice who could derive much benefit from this anthology of essays on seventeenth-century Rationalism; not merely do the authors e…Read more
  •  20
    Part of Nature (review)
    International Studies in Philosophy 32 (4): 124-125. 2000.
  •  16
    The New Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche ed. by Tom Stern
    Journal of Nietzsche Studies 53 (1): 96-99. 2022.
    Any companion will take on different features over the course of a long trip, though very often it is one’s own moods that are to blame if things go badly. Similarly, whether the companion Tom Stern has assembled will find favor will depend on the moods of the one being companioned.If one is interested in gaining more thorough knowledge of Nietzsche’s own context, there are plenty of instructive discussions here. Andreas Urs Sommer, in “What Nietzsche Did and Did Not Read,” points out that for a…Read more
  • Three Essays on Spinoza's Philosophy
    Dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago. 1994.
    Spinoza combined a sophisticated metaphysics with a robust social, political and moral theory. I examine Spinoza's philosophy from three different perspectives. First I explain the connection between his metaphysics and his physics, clarifying the sense in which the laws of nature are supposed by Spinoza to be "inscribed" in God's nature. Second, I examine Spinoza's way of reconciling mechanistic determinism with human freedom, and I show how that reconciliation illuminates his doctrine of the e…Read more
  • New Essays on the Rationalists (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. 1999.
  •  37
    Why Not to Trust Other Philosophers
    American Philosophical Quarterly 41 (3). 2004.
    None
  •  13
    Squaring the Cartesian circle
    Auslegung 19 (1): 23-33. 1993.
  •  52
    Spinoza’s Corporeal Substance
    Southwest Philosophy Review 12 (2): 39-50. 1996.
  •  8
    Part of Nature (review)
    International Studies in Philosophy 32 (4): 124-125. 2000.
  •  141
    Spinoza and prime matter
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 42 (1): 21-32. 2004.
    : Spinoza claims that God is extended and corporeal, but he resists identifying God with the extended, corporeal world. How then are we to understand the relation of God to the physical world? This essay first critically examines interpretations offered by Schmaltz and Woolhouse which claim that Spinoza's God is not actually extended, but a nonextended essence of extension. It is then suggested that Spinoza's God can be understood as something akin to (a modified version of) scholastic prime mat…Read more
  •  62
    New essays on the rationalists (edited book)
    with Rocco J. Gennaro
    Oxford University Press. 1999.
    This collection presents some of the most vital and original recent writings on Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, the three greatest rationalists of the early modern period. Their work offered brilliant and distinct integrations of science, morals, metaphysics, and religion, which today remain at the center of philosophical discussion. The essays written especially for this volume explore how these three philosophical systems treated matter, substance, human freedom, natural necessity, knowledge,…Read more
  •  1
    Understanding Rationalism
    Routledge. 2008.
    The three great historical philosophers most often associated with rationalism - Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz - opened up ingenious and breathtaking vistas upon the world. Yet their works are so difficult that readers often find themselves stymied. "Understanding Rationalism" offers a guide for anyone approaching these thinkers for the first time.With clear explanations, elegant examples and insightful summaries, "Understanding Rationalism" unlocks their intricate metaphysical systems, which a…Read more
  •  77
    Interpreting Spinoza: Critical Essays (edited book)
    Cambridge University Press. 2008.
    The philosophy of Spinoza is increasingly recognised as holding a position of crucial importance and influence in early modern thought, and in previous years has been the focus of a rich and growing body of scholarship. In this volume of essays, leading experts in the field offer penetrating analyses of his views about God, necessity, imagination, the mind, knowledge, history, society, and politics. The essays treat questions of perennial importance in Spinoza scholarship but also constitute cri…Read more
  •  16
    Review of Julian young, Friedrich Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography (review)
    Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2010 (6). 2010.
  •  22
    Nietzsche launches powerful critiques of traditional moral values on the basis of “life's perspectives and objectives.” But what does this mean? Several recent commentators have tried to provide an explanation by ascribing to Nietzsche a will-to-power metaphysic, but there are solid reasons for thinking that Nietzsche did not intend to provide any comprehensive metaphysical system. This paper explains “life's perspectives” by showing how to construct a theoretical entity (“Life”) that has a pers…Read more
  •  801
    This paper is an extended version of "Valuing from life's perspective." In this paper, with the aim of explaining Nietzsche's view, I illustrate one way of making sense of a theoretical entity (called "Life"), which has values and a perspective. Then I turn to Nietzsche's perspectivism, with the hope of explaining why Life's perspective should be in any way privileged. Finally, I explain how trying to live from Life's perspective would force us to change our values - and, in particular, disown t…Read more
  •  4
    The advent of modern science brought deep challenges to traditional religion. Miracles, prophecy, immortal souls, absolute morality - all of these fundamental notions were challenged by the increasingly analytical and skeptical approach of modern scientists. One philosopher, Baruch Spinoza, proposed a new theology, rooted in a close analysis of the Bible, which could fit this new science and provide a sound basis for a social order. "Spinoza's Radical Theology" explains the mechanics and meaning…Read more
  •  48
    Cassirer’s Metaphysics of Symbolic Forms (review)
    Philosophical Review 111 (3): 447-449. 2002.
    This book is a commentary on volume four of Cassirer’s Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. Cassirer had not completed this volume at the time of his death. The texts related to Cassirer’s preliminary work on it have been assembled and translated recently by John Michael Krois and Donald Phillip Verene. Bayer’s book is a commentary on these texts, and since it is meant only as a commentary, as Verene notes in his introduction, “Bayer does not propose to solve problems that may lie within Cassirer’s met…Read more
  •  31
    Nietzschean Health and the Inherent Pathology of Christianity
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 18 (1): 73-89. 2010.
    This Article does not have an abstract
  •  36
    It can be fairly said that the Fall of Adam is not much on the minds of scientists nowadays. But apparently it was in the days of the scientific revolution. Jones reads Descartes, Pascal, and Leibniz as all discovering in the new science different implications for our ruined natural state. For these thinkers , the Fall meant losing epistemic privileges and moral attunement. Losing Eden meant losing our place in the universe. And the promise of the new science, some hoped, was that we could gain …Read more
  •  21
    This essay recounts recent psychiatric literature about the probable causes of Nietzsche's collapse, endorsing the conclusion that it was not syphilis. The essay then explores the role of madness in Nietzsche's philosophy, and also explores to what extent some sort of madness - whether psychological or philosophical - influenced his later philosophy.
  •  27
    The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution: Descartes, Pascal, and the (review)
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 46 (2): 321-322. 2008.
    It can be fairly said that the Fall of Adam is not much on the minds of scientists nowadays. But apparently it was in the days of the scientific revolution. Jones reads Descartes, Pascal, and Leibniz as all discovering in the new science different implications for our ruined natural state. For these thinkers , the Fall meant losing epistemic privileges and moral attunement. Losing Eden meant losing our place in the universe. And the promise of the new science, some hoped, was that we could gain …Read more