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13A Leibnizian God of Metaphysics?In Pierfrancesco Basile & Leemon B. McHenry (eds.), Consciousness, Reality and Value: Essays in Honour of T. L. S. Sprigge, De Gruyter. pp. 211-228. 2007.
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8Book reviews (review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 6 (3): 473-514. 1998.Duns Scotus, Metaphysician. William A. Frank and Allan B. Wolter. Purdue University Press 1995, pp. 224 £27.50 Hb. ISBN 1–55753–071–8 £13.19 Pb. ISBN 1–55753–072–6 Plato in Renaissance England. Sears Jayne. Dordrecht, Boston & London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995, pp. 197 Dfl. 190.00, $122.00, £80.00 hb. ISBN 0–7923–3060–9 Mechanismus und Subjektivität in der Philosophie von Thomas Hobbes (Quaestiones, 9). Michael Esfeld. Frommann‐Holzboog, Stuttgart‐Bad Cannstatt 1995, pp. 434. ISBN 3–7728–…Read more
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133Book reviews (review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 6 (3): 473-514. 1998.Duns Scotus, Metaphysician. William A. Frank and Allan B. Wolter. Purdue University Press 1995, pp. 224 £27.50 Hb. ISBN 1–55753–071–8 £13.19 Pb. ISBN 1–55753–072–6 Plato in Renaissance England. Sears Jayne. Dordrecht, Boston & London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995, pp. 197 Dfl. 190.00, $122.00, £80.00 hb. ISBN 0–7923–3060–9 Mechanismus und Subjektivität in der Philosophie von Thomas Hobbes. Michael Esfeld. Frommann‐Holzboog, Stuttgart‐Bad Cannstatt 1995, pp. 434. ISBN 3–7728–1699–1 Descartes,…Read more
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Transformative Values: Human-Environment Relations in Theory and Practice (edited book)Springer. 2012.
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44The Metaphysics of Consciousness (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2010.What is consciousness? What is the place of consciousness in nature? These and related questions occupy a prominent place in contemporary studies in metaphysics and philosophy of mind, often involving complex interdisciplinary connections between philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, biology and cognitive neuroscience. At the same time, these questions play a fundamental role in the philosophies of great thinkers of the past such as, among others, Plotinus, Descartes, Leibniz, Kant, W…Read more
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57Leibniz and the Cambridge Platonists in the Debate over Plastic NaturesIn Pauline Phemister & Stuart Brown (eds.), Leibniz and the English-Speaking World, Springer. pp. 95-110. 2007.By his own account, Leibniz first encountered the True Intellectual System of the Universe of the Cambridge Platonist Ralph Cudworth during his visit to Rome in the spring of 1689, although the work itself had been published just over a decade earlier in 1678. Leibniz would later report to Cudworth’s daughter, Damaris Masham, that he had been delighted to see the wisdom of the ancients “accompanied by solid reflections”. He had certainly taken the book seriously, devoting sufficient attention to…Read more
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131Book reviews (review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 2 (2): 161-199. 1994.Bibliothecae Selectae da Cusano a Leopardi edited by Eugenio Canone Leo S. Olscki Editore, Firenze. Pp. xxxii + 631 + 15 plates. 1993. ISBN 88–222–4104–5 Franco Burgersdijk (1590–1635): neo‐Aristotelianism in Leiden ed. by E. P. Bos and H. A. Krop Studies in the History of Ideas in the Low Countries Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, 1993, pp. 185. Hfl. 60,‐. ISBN 90–5183–374–1 Atoms, Pneuma, and Tranquillity: Epicurean and Stoic Themes in European Thought Margaret J. Osier, ed. Cambridge, Cambridge Un…Read more
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51Book reviewsBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 4 (1): 165-206. 1996.The Routledge history of Philosophy General Editors ‐ G. H. R. Parkinson and S. G. Shanker Volume IV The Renaissance and 17th Century Rationalism edited by G. H. R. Parkinson Routledge: London and New York, 1993, pp. 444. £55.00. ISBN 0–415–05378–1 L'interpretazione nei secoli XVI e XVII 169 L'interpretazione nei secoli XVI e XVII edited by Guido Canziani and Yves Charles Zarka Franco Angeli: Milano, 1993 (Filosofia e scienza nei Cinquecento e nel Seicento. Studi, 39) Pp. 844. ISBN 88–204–8246–0…Read more
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120Relational Space and Places of ValueHistory of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 14 (1): 89-106. 2011.Drawing on a Leibnizian panpsychist ontology of living beings that have a body and a soul, this paper outlines a theory of space based on the perceptual and appetitive relations among these creatures’ souls. In parallel with physical space founded on relations among bodies subject to efficient causation, teleological space results from relations among souls subject to final causation and is described qualitatively in terms of creatures’ pleasure and pain, wellbeing and happiness. Particular plac…Read more
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The Metaphysics of Consciousness: Volume 67 (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2010.What is consciousness? What is the place of consciousness in nature? These and related questions occupy a prominent place in contemporary studies in metaphysics and philosophy of mind, often involving complex interdisciplinary connections between philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, biology and cognitive neuroscience. At the same time, these questions play a fundamental role in the philosophies of great thinkers of the past such as, among others, Plotinus, Descartes, Leibniz, Kant, W…Read more
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Leibniz's monadological positive aestheticsIn Pauline Phemister & Jeremy William Dunham (eds.), Monadologies, Routledge. 2018.
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Leibniz's mirrors: reflecting the pastIn Wenchao Li (ed.), Vortrage des X. Internationalen Leibniz-Kongress, vol. 6, Olms. pp. 93-108. 2017.
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92The Leibniz-Stahl controversy (book review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 26 (6): 1238-1241. 2018.
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146Substance and force: or why it matters what we thinkBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 25 (3): 526-546. 2017.Leibniz believed the ‘true concept of substance’ is found in ‘the concept of forces or powers’. Accordingly, he conceived monadic substances as metaphysically primitive forces whose modifications manifest both as monads’ appetitions and perceptions and as derivative forces in monads’ organic bodies. Relationships between substances, and in particular the ethical relationships that hold between rational substances, are also foregrounded by Leibniz’s concept of substances as forces. In section one…Read more
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121Leibniz and the elements of compound bodiesBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 7 (1). 1999.No abstract
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Can Perceptions and Motions be Harmonised?In R. S. Woolhouse (ed.), Leibniz's 'New System', 1695, Leo S. Olschki. pp. 141-168. 1996.
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4'All the Time and Everywhere Everything's the Same as Here': The Principle of Uniformity in the Correspondence Between Leibniz and Lady MashamIn Paul Lodge (ed.), Leibniz and His Correspondents, Cambridge University Press. pp. 193-213. 2004.The privacy, real or illusory, afforded by the personal letter allows each participant the philosophical freedom to explore a range of possible opinions, to experiment with different ideas, to hesitate, and to change his or her mind in ways that published articles and books discourage. The private letter also allows the use of language and style of writing to be altered to suit the particular recipient. This is especially evident in Leibniz's correspondence with Des Bosses. Sometimes, however, t…Read more
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Relational Space and Places of ValueIn Emily Brady & Pauline Phemister (eds.), Transformative Values: Human-Environment Relations in Theory and Practice, Springer. pp. 17-30. 2012.This is a revised and shortened version of ‘Relational Space and Places of Value’, Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy, 14 (2011), 89-106.
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170Monadologies: an historical overviewBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 23 (6): 1023-1032. 2015.This introductory overview comprises a brief account of Leibniz's own monadology; a discussion of the reception of his philosophy up to Kant; and a short overview of the monadologies developed after Kant's first Critique, made via a summary of key points raised in this guest issue, highlighting recurrent themes, which include questions of historiography
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81Locke: his philosophical thought (review)International Philosophical Quarterly 40 (4): 518-20. 2000.
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1295Leibniz's Monadological Positive AestheticsBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 23 (6): 1214-1234. 2015.One of the most intriguing – and arguably counter-intuitive – doctrines defended by environmental philosophers is that of positive aesthetics, the thesis that all of nature is beautiful. The doctrine has attained philosophical respectability only comparatively recently, thanks in no small part to the work of Allen Carlson, one of its foremost defenders. In this paper, we argue that the doctrine can be found much earlier in the work of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz who devised and defended a version …Read more
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75IdeasIn Desmond M. Clarke & Catherine Wilson (eds.), The Oxford handbook of philosophy in early modern Europe, Oxford University Press. 2011.This article examines the history of ideas during the early modern period. René Descartes extended the term idea to include sensation, imagination, and memory and located ideas in the human intellect. Not all philosophers agreed with him, and among the most prominent resistors were Baruch Spinoza and Nicolas Malebranche. Spinoza viewed ideas as modes of God insofar as God possesses the attribute of thought. Malebranche too insisted on retaining the pre-Cartesian opinion that ideas exist in God a…Read more
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Unity and Multiplicity: Leibniz's Critiques of res cogitans and res extensaIn Hans Poser (ed.), Nihil Sine Ratione: Mensch, Natur und Technik im Wirken von G. W. Leibniz Schirmherrschaft, Vii Internationaler Leibniz Kongress Proceedings, Vol 2. pp. 998-1005. 2001.