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Transformative Values: Human-Environment Relations in Theory and Practice (edited book)Springer. 2012.
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16The 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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10Leibniz and the Cambridge Platonists The Debate over Plastic NaturesIn Pauline Phemister & Stuart Brown (eds.), Leibniz and the English-Speaking World, Springer. 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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3Book 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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20Relational 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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41The Leibniz-Stahl controversy (book review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 26 (6): 1238-1241. 2018.
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39Substance 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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22Leibniz on Apperception, Consciousness, and Reflection (review)The Leibniz Review 2 10-11. 1992.I have awaited Professor Kulstad’s new book since Philosophia first announced its forthcoming publication in 1989. The wait perhaps increased my expectations, but now, with book in hand, I am in no way disappointed. The book concerns Leibniz’s views on apperception, consciousness and reflection. These concepts play important roles in Leibniz’s metaphysics. Scholars on the continent at the turn of the century recognized this, but anglo-american Leibnizians generally did not, although recently the…Read more
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42Leibniz and the elements of compound bodiesBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 7 (1). 1999.No abstract
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Leibniz and the Cambridge Platonists in the Debate over Plastic NaturesIn Phemister Pauline & Brown Stuart (eds.), Leibniz and the English-Speaking World, Springer. pp. 95-110. 2007.
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3'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, Uk ;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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2Exploring Leibniz’s Kingdoms: A Philosophical Analysis of Nature and GraceEcotheology, 7:2 7 (2): 126-145. 2003.
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10Human-Environment Relations: Transformative Values in Theory and Practice (edited book)Springer. 2012.This fresh and innovative approach to human-environmental relations will revolutionise our understanding of the boundaries between ourselves and the environment we inhabit. The anthology is predicated on the notion that values shift back and forth between humans and the world around them in an ethical communicative zone called ‘value-space’. The contributors examine the transformative interplay between external environments and human values, and identify concrete ways in which these norms, resid…Read more
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1Progress and perfection of world and individual in Leibniz’s philosophy, 1694-1697In H. Breger, J. Herbst & S. Erdner (eds.), VIII Internationaler Leibniz Kongress proceedings, vol 2, G. W, Leibniz Gesellschaft. pp. 805-812. 2006.
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8Locke: His Philosophical Thought (review)International Philosophical Quarterly 40 (4): 518-520. 2000.
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Leibniz on Apperception, Consciousness and Reflection (review)Leibniz Society of North America Newsletter 2 10-11. 1992.
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27IdeasIn 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