Fraenkel / Perinetti The Rationalists: Between Tradition and Innovation

1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-90-481-9385-1
Verlag: Springer-Verlag
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 224 Seiten

This volume draws a balanced picture of the Rationalists by bringing their intellectual contexts, sources and full range of interests into sharper focus, without neglecting their core commitment to the epistemological doctrine that earned them their traditional label. The collection of original essays addresses topics ranging from theodicy and early modern music theory to Spinoza's anti-humanism, often critically revising important aspects of the received picture of the Rationalists. Another important contribution of the volume is that it brings out aspects of Rationalist philosophers and their legacies that are not ordinarily associated with them, such as the project of a Cartesian ethics. Finally, a strong emphasis is placed on the connection of the Rationalists' philosophy to their interests in empirical science, to their engagement in the political life of their era, and to the religious background of many of their philosophical commitments.

Carlos Fraenkel is an associate professor in the departments of philosophy and Jewish studies at McGill University in Montreal. His publications include From Maimonides to Samuel ibn Tibbon: The Transformation of the Dalâlat al-Hâ'irîn into the Moreh ha-Nevukhim, Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2007 (Hebrew) and Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza-Reason, Religion, and Autonomy, forthcoming with Cambridge University Press. Dario Perinetti is associate professor in the department of philosophy at Université du Québec à Montréal. He has published on David Hume, G.W. Hegel and early modern philosophy of history. He is currently completing a manuscript book on David Hume. Justin E. H. Smith is associate professor of philosophy at Concordia University in Montreal. He is the author of Divine Machines: Leibniz's Philosophy of Biology (Princeton University Press, 2010), and is currently working on a critical edition and translation for the Yale Leibniz series, with François Duchesneau, of Georg Ernst Stahl's Negotium Otiosum. His current research concerns the impact of European colonial expansion and exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries on early modern philosophical reflections about human nature and human difference.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fraenkel, Carlos

Perinetti, Dario

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Contents;6
2;Contributors;8
3;1 Introduction;9
3.1;References;16
4;Part I Continuities Between the Premodern and the Modern;18
4.1;2 Descartes on Human Nature and the Human Good;19
4.1.1;2.1 Eudaimonism and Structural Eudaimonism;20
4.1.2;2.2 The Meditations: The Nature of the Human Mind and the Human Good;22
4.1.3;2.3 A Bodily Contribution to the Human Good?;24
4.1.4;2.4 Stoic Oikeiosis and Descartess Account of the Human Good;26
4.1.5;2.5 Descartes, Human Nature, and the Human Good;30
4.1.6;References;32
4.2;3 Spinoza on Philosophy and Religion: The Averroistic Sources;33
4.2.1;References;48
4.3;4 Music, Mechanics and Mixed Mathematics;50
4.3.1;4.1;50
4.3.2;4.2;58
4.3.3;4.3;65
4.3.4;References;68
5;Part II Creating Traditions;70
5.1;5 Ethics in Descartes and Seventeenth Century Cartesian Textbooks;71
5.1.1;References;79
5.2;6 Louis Bourguet and the Model of Organic Bodies;80
5.2.1;6.1 The Stakes of the Transition from Vallisneri to Bourguet;81
5.2.2;6.2 The Nature of Organized Bodies;88
5.2.3;6.3 The Role of Organic Mechanism in the Explanation of Generation;91
5.2.4;6.4 Conclusion;100
5.2.5;References;101
6;Part III Rethinking Spinoza;102
6.1;7 "Nemo non videt": Intuitive Knowledge and the Question of Spinoza's Elitism;103
6.1.1;7.1 Nemo non videt: Scientia Intuitiva, Part I;106
6.1.2;7.2 Intuitive Superiority: Scientia Intuitiva, Part II;112
6.1.3;7.3 Wisdom for the Many?;120
6.1.4;References;123
6.2;8 Rationalism Versus Subjective Experience: The Problem of the Two Minds in Spinoza;125
6.2.1;8.1 The Absolute vs. the Subjective Mind;126
6.2.2;8.2 The Intellectualist Reading of the Mind;129
6.2.3;8.3 That Inadequate Ideas Are Also in God;133
6.2.4;8.4 How the Order of Imagination is "Superimposed" onto the Order of the Intellect;139
6.2.5;References;144
7;Part IV Legacies of Rationalism;146
7.1;9 Spinoza's Anti-Humanism: An Outline;147
7.1.1;9.1 Introduction;147
7.1.2;9.2 The Place of Humanity in Spinozas World;151
7.1.3;9.3 The Battle Against Anthropomorphism.;155
7.1.4;9.4 Spinozas Radical Naturalism;161
7.1.5;9.5 Epilogue;164
7.1.6;References;165
7.2;10 Spinoza, Leibniz, and the Gods of Philosophy;167
7.2.1;10.1 Three Gods;168
7.2.2;10.2 Spinozas Choice;175
7.2.3;Abbreviations;181
7.2.3.1;Works by Leibniz;181
7.2.3.2;Works by Malebranche;181
7.2.3.3;Works by Arnauld;182
7.2.3.4;Works by Descartes;182
7.2.3.5;Works by Spinoza;182
7.2.4;References;182
7.3;11 Leibniz on Infinite Beings and Non-beings;183
7.3.1;11.1 Introduction;183
7.3.2;11.2 Infinite Number and Infinite Being;185
7.3.3;11.3 Infinite Number and Infinite Series;188
7.3.4;11.4 Complete Concepts of Individuals and Created Individuals;190
7.3.5;11.5 Possible Things and Actual Things;191
7.3.6;11.6 Entia and entia rationis;192
7.3.7;11.7 Aggregates and Substances;193
7.3.8;11.8 Natural Machines and Artificial Machines;196
7.3.9;11.9 Conclusion;198
7.3.10;Abbreviations;198
7.3.10.1;11.9.1 References to Leibniz Works;198
7.3.11;References to Secondary Sources;199
7.4;12 Grounding the Principle of Sufficient Reason: Leibnizian Rationalism and the Humean Challenge;200
7.4.1;12.1 Introduction;200
7.4.2;12.2 Leibniz;202
7.4.3;12.3 Leibnizs Rationalist Followers: Wolff and Baumgarten;209
7.4.4;12.4 Hume;213
7.4.5;12.5 Conclusion;216
7.4.6;References;217
8;Name Index;219
9;Subject Index;221