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12LockeIn Timothy O'Connor & Constantine Sandis (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Action, Wiley-blackwell. 2010.This chapter contains sections titled: References.
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8The Correspondence with StillingfleetIn A Companion to Locke, Blackwell. 2015.John Locke's first letter to Stillingfleet addresses a number of important philosophical topics, including the idea of substance, knowledge without clear and distinct ideas, the existence of spiritual substances, the ontological argument for the existence of God, and the real essences of things. He notes that his Essay does not contain a single argument against the doctrine of the Trinity, and indeed, he says that he wrote the entire book "without any Thought of the controversy between the Trini…Read more
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51Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz: The Concept of Substance in Seventeenth Century MetaphysicsPhilosophical Review 104 (4): 585. 1995.This intelligent and often subtle introduction to rationalist metaphysics focuses on the development of the concept of substance in Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz. After briefly reviewing the Aristotelian background in the introduction, Woolhouse spends the first three chapters presenting the broad outlines of each thinker’s account of substance. These are followed by three chapters devoted more specifically to the metaphysics of extended substance and to foundational issues in early modern phy…Read more
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Descartes's Extended SubstancesIn Rocco J. Gennaro & Charles Huenemann (eds.), New essays on the rationalists, Oxford University Press. 1999.Was Descartes an occasionalist about body–body causation? Many scholars have argued that he was. This essay examines the textual evidence against such a reading of Descartes, his discussions of force, and his doctrine of the creation of the eternal truths, and argues that Descartes was not such an occasionalist.
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Locke's Philosophy of Natural ScienceDissertation, Cornell University. 1994.I examine two strands in Locke's thought which seem to conflict with his corpuscularian sympathies: his repeated suggestion that natural philosophy is incapable of being made a science, and his claim that some of the properties of bodies--secondary qualities, powers of gravitation, cohesion and maybe even thought--are arbitrarily "superadded" by God. ;Locke often says that a body's properties flow from its real essence as the properties of a triangle flow from its definition. He is widely read a…Read more
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324Having Locke’s IdeasJournal of the History of Philosophy 48 (1). 2009.Our understanding of Locke’s theory of ideas is stymied by his reticence about what he means by ‘idea’. I attempt to work around the problem by focusing on some neglected questions that afford us a better picture of his theory. I ask not what his ideas are, but what kinds of states or episodes he counts as someone’s having an idea, and what is involved in having simple and complex ideas. I argue that although we can make sense of much of what he says about having simple and complex ideas, he is …Read more
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30Revisiting People and SubstancesIn Stewart Duncan & Antonia LoLordo (eds.), Debates in Modern Philosophy: Essential Readings and Contemporary Responses, Routledge. pp. 186. 2012.
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25A Companion to Locke (edited book)Blackwell. 2015.This collection of 28 original essays examines the diverse scope of John Locke’s contributions as a celebrated philosopher, empiricist, and father of modern political theory. Explores the impact of Locke’s thought and writing across a range of fields including epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of science, political theory, education, religion, and economics Delves into the most important Lockean topics, such as innate ideas, perception, natural kinds, free will, natural rights, religious tol…Read more
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165Locke’s ColorsPhilosophical Review 112 (1): 57-96. 2003.What sort of property did Locke take colors to be? He is sometimes portrayed as holding that colors are wholly subjective. More often he is thought to identify colors with dispositions—powers that bodies have to produce certain ideas in us. Many interpreters find two or more incompatible strands in his account of color, and so are led to distinguish an “official,” prevailing view from the conflicting remarks into which he occasionally lapses. Many who see him as officially holding that colors ar…Read more
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48Descartes's Extended SubstancesIn Gennaro Rocco & Huenemann Charles (eds.), New Essays on the Rationalists, Oxford University Press. pp. 82--104. 1999.
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65Primary and Secondary Qualities: The Historical and Ongoing Debate (review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 20 (3): 640-642. 2012.British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Volume 20, Issue 3, Page 640-642, May 2012
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44Locke on attentionBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 25 (3): 487-505. 2017.Locke’s remarks about attention have not received a great deal of attention from commentators. In Section 1, I make the case that attention plays an important role in his philosophy. In Section 2, I describe and discuss five Lockean claims about attention. In Section 3, I explore Locke’s views about attention in relation to his account of sense perception. He thinks that we attend to objects by attending to ideas, and I argue that he treats sensory ideas as transparent in a particular sense. In …Read more
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40Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz by R. S. Woolhouse (review)Philosophical Review 104 (4): 585-587. 1995.
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87Locke's MetaphysicsOxford University Press. 2013.Matthew Stuart offers a fresh interpretation of John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, arguing for the work's profound contribution to metaphysics. He presents new readings of Locke's accounts of personal identity and the primary/secondary quality distinction, and explores Locke's case against materialism and his philosophy of action
Brunswick, Maine, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
17th/18th Century Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics |