Description
Book SynopsisBy the mid-1600s, the commonsense, manifest picture of the world associated with Aristotle had been undermined by skeptical arguments on the one hand and by the rise of the New Science on the other. What would be the scientific image to succeed the Aristotelian model? Thomas Lennon argues here that the contest between the supporters of Descartes an
Trade Review"Lennon is arguing for a major reinterpretation of early modern philosophy... The book is clearly written and well-argued."--Review of Metaphysics
Table of ContentsPrefaceNote on DocumentationIThe Philosophical Terrain31The Gassendist Failure32The Gassendist Success263The Interminable Battle344Other Wars52IIThe Giants of the Seventeenth Century635Dramatis Personae636Mind versus Flesh1067Gassendist Theories of Space: Apotheosis and Annihilation1178Physical and Metaphysical Atomism137IIILocke: Gassendist Anti-Cartesian1499Locke and Gassendi14910Locke and Descartes16311Enthusiasm169IVThe Gods of the Seventeenth Century19112Descartes's Idealism19113Malebranche's Realism21014Malebranche's Idealism229VIdeas and Representation24015Two Patterns of Ideas24016Arguments for Representationalism24817Two Versions of the Causal Argument255VIThe Untouchable and the Uncuttable27418Space and Solidity27619Simple and Complex Ideas28820Primary and Secondary Qualities29821Powers30422Matter and Creation30923The Bestial Soul314VIIInnateness, Abstraction, and Essences33424Innateness33425Essences and Abstraction34026The Polemic with Stillingfleet354VIIIPhilosophy and the Historiography of Philosophy36727Dissimulation and Meaning36828What Locke Said37429Two Camps of Historians37830History and Interpretation383Works Cited393Index411
