Topics in Early Modern Philosophy of Mind

This book examines the philosophy of mind from the 1630s to the late 1700s. It presents studies of a wide array of philosophers and topics, from those that have long captivated philosophers and psychologists to others that have been under explored.

During the early modern era (c. 1600-1800), philosophers formulated a number of new questions, methods of investigation, and theories regarding the nature of the mind. The result of their efforts has been described as the original cognitive revolution. Topics in Early Modern Philosophy of Mind provides a comprehensive snapshot of this exciting period in the history of thinking about the mind, presenting studies of a wide array of philosophers and topics. Written by some of today's foremost authorities on early modern philosophy, the ten chapters address issues ranging from those that have long captivated philosophers and psychologists as well as those that have been underexplored. Likewise, the papers engage figures from the history of ideas who are well-known today (Descartes, Hume, Kant) as well as those who have been comparatively neglected by contemporary scholarship (Desgabets, Boyle, Collins).

This volume will become an essential reference work that graduatestudents and professionals in the fields of philosophy of mind, the history of philosophy, and the history of psychology will want to own.

First book to cover all of early modern philosophy of mind from the 1630s to the late 1700s Contributors include some of today's foremost authorities on early modern philosophy Chapters deal with important but relatively obscure figures who are rarely discussed by contemporary scholarship Chapters shed new light on issues that are central to our understanding of theorizing about the mind in the 1600s and 1700s A wide range of topics concerning the mind are addressed, thus exposing readers to the richness of early modern theorizing on the nature of the mind

Autorentext

Jon Miller is a specialist in the history of philosophy, especially early modern rationalism and the Hellenistic period of ancient philosophy. His main interest lies in understanding how philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries received the ideas of their ancient predecessors. Many of his publications deal with Spinoza and the Stoics, although he has also written about Grotius, Descartes, skepticism and happiness. Currently teaching in Canada, Dr. Miller has also held positions in Sweden and the United States.

Inhalt
Mental Transparency, Direct Sensation, and the Unity of the Cartesian Mind.- Wonder Among Cartesians and Natural Magicians.- Desgabets: Rationalist or Cartesian Empiricist?.- Descartes, Spinoza, and Locke on Extended Thinking Beings.- Sensation in a Malebranchean Mind.- Spinoza on Teleology, Value, and the Unity of Mind.- Spinoza's Eternal Self.- Can Matter Think? The MindBody Problem in the ClarkeCollins Correspondence.- Berkeley and Hume on Self and Self-Consciousness.- Making an Object of Yourself: On the Intentionality of the Passions in Hume.