Description
Book SynopsisIn the origins of Western philosophical thought, doctrines of physics intertwined with the debate between political philosophers. It is for this reason that Plato devoted his dialogues Theatetus and Parmenides to investigating and meeting the arguments of his principal philosophical adversaries. The doctrine of atomism, which developed under the influence of Parmenides' philosophy, is one that Plato refutes directly. In the modern era of philosophy and science, a revived doctrine of atomism has been treated as apolitical. Atomistic postulates lay at the root of the doctrines of Early Modern philosophers and exert a great influence upon cultural and political teachings. In order to understand Early Modern Philosophy, therefore, and especially in order to examine Early Modern political science, one must address the atomistic theory of body which lies at the root of Early Modern metaphysics. In the metaphysical domain, or in the domain of natural philosophy, the Early Modern philosophers
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Physics and Politics Chapter 1: Francis Bacon’s Uncharitable Charity: The Birth of a New Rationality Chapter 2: Descartes and the Science of Authority Chapter 3: Hobbes’s Natural Science Chapter 4: Hobbes’s ‘Right of Nature’ and the Politics of Agony Chapter 5: On Spinoza’s ‘Substance’ or ‘God’ Conclusion: Early Modern Philosophy, Just the Facts Bibliography
