Early Modern Philosophy
An Anthology
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  • Publication Date: July 31, 2021
  • ISBN: 9781554812790 / 1554812798
  • 800 pages; 7¾" x 9¼"

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Early Modern Philosophy

An Anthology

  • Publication Date: July 31, 2021
  • ISBN: 9781554812790 / 1554812798
  • 800 pages; 7¾" x 9¼"

This new anthology of early modern philosophy enriches the possibilities for teaching this period by highlighting not only metaphysics and epistemology but also new themes such as virtue, equality and difference, education, the passions, and love. It contains the works of 43 philosophers, including traditionally taught figures such as Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, as well as less familiar writers such as Lord Shaftesbury, Anton Amo, Julien Offray de La Mettrie, and Denis Diderot. It also highlights the contributions of women philosophers, including Margaret Cavendish, Anne Conway, Gabrielle Suchon, Sor Juana Inéz de la Cruz, and Emilie Du Châtelet.

Introduction
Themes
Timeline of Texts

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)

  • To the Reader
  • Of Cannibals
  • Apology for Raymond Sebond

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

  • Advancement of Learning
  • The New Organon

Marie de Gournay (1566-1545)

  • The Equality of Men and Women

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

  • Leviathan, Part I, 1-7, 10, and 13-15
  • Hobbes and Bramhall on Liberty and Necessity

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

  • Discourse on the Method, Part 1 & 2
    • Website: Discourse on the Method, Part 4, Part 5 (excerpts), Part 6 (excerpts)
  • Meditations on First Philosophy

Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678)

  • A Dissertation on the Natural Capacity of Women for Study and Learning

Madeleine de Scudéry (1607-1701)

  • Conversations on Diverse Subjects: Of Knowledge of Ourselves and Others

Henry More (1614-1687)

  • Immortality of the Soul

Ralph Cudworth (1617-1688)

  • True Intellectual System, selections from Chapter XXXVII

Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia (1618-1680)

  • Correspondence with Descartes

Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673)

  • Poems and Fancies
  • Philosophical Letters
  • Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy
  • Grounds of Natural Philosophy

Anne Conway (1631-1679)

  • Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy

Gabrielle Suchon (1632-1703)

  • Treatise on Ethics and Politics
  • On the Celibate Life, Freely Chosen

John Locke (1632-1704)

  • Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book I & II (excerpts)
    • Website: Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book IV (excerpts)
  • Some thoughts Concerning Education

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)

  • Ethics

Robert Hooke (1635-1703)

  • Micrographia

Madame de Maintenon (1635-1719)

  • Dialogues: On Reason, On Constraint, On the Drawbacks of Marriage, On the Education at Saint-Cyr
  • Addresses to Students: On the Utility of Reflection, Of the Single Life, Addresses to Faculty: Of the Education of Ladies

Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715)

  • Search After Truth

Isaac Newton (1642-1726)

  • Selections from Principia Mathematica

GW Leibniz (1646-1716)

  • Discourse on Metaphysics
  • New System of Nature, and of the Communication of Substances
  • Theodicy: Summary of Arguments
    • Website: Monadology

Poulain de la Barre (1647-1725)

  • A Physical and Moral Discourse on the Equality of Both Sexes
  • On the Education of Ladies

Pierre Bayle (1647-1706)

  • Spinoza
    • Website: Historical and Critical Dictionary: Manicheans, Rorarius

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (c.1648 – 1695)

  • “Let Us Pretend I am Happy”
  • Response of the Poet

Damaris Cudworth, Lady Masham (1659-1708)

  • Occasional Thoughts in Reference to a Vertuous or Christian Life
  • Correspondence between Leibniz and Masham

Mary Astell (1666-1731)

  • A Serious Proposal to the Ladies
  • Some Reflections upon Marriage

Bernard de Mandeville (1670-1733)

  • Grumbling of the Hive and Fable of the Bees

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

  • Soliloquy
    • Website: Inquiry Concerning Virtue

Catherine Trotter Cockburn (1674-1749)

  • Remarks on King

George Berkeley (1685-1753)

  • Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, First Dialogue
    • Website: Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, Second Dialogue

Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746)

  • An Inquiry Concerning the Original of our Ideas of Beauty
  • An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions

Voltaire (1694-1778)

  • Micromégas

Anton Amo (c. 1703 – c. 1756)

  • Treatise on the Art of Soberly and Accurately Philosophizing

Emilie Du Chatelet (1706-1749)

  • Selections from Foundations of Physics
  • Discourse on Happiness

La Mettrie (1709-1751)

  • Man a Machine

Thomas Reid (1710-1796)

  • Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense

David Hume (1711-1776)

  • Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sections I-V, VII-IX
    • Website: Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Sections X-XII
  • Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

  • Discourse on the Origins of Inequality

Denis Diderot (1713-1784)

  • Letter on the Blind

Etienne Bonnot de Condillac (1714-1780)

  • Treatise on Sensations

Adam Smith (1723-1790)

  • Theory of Moral Sentiments

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

  • Prolegomena to Any Further Metaphysics
  • What is Enlightenment?
    • Website: Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals

James Beattie (1735-1803)

  • Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth

Sophie de Grouchy (1764-1822)

  • Letters on Sympathy

Lisa Shapiro is Professor of Philosophy at Simon Fraser University. Marcy P. Lascano is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kansas.

  • • Includes readings from 43 philosophers, more than any similar anthology in this area
  • • Contains substantial selections from canonical writers such as Descartes, Locke, and Hume
  • • Numerous works from women philosophers are provided, including Cavendish, Conway, and Sor Juana
  • • The breadth of selections allows for an array of topics to be highlighted, including traditional themes in metaphysics and epistemology but also new themes such as education, equality, feminism, and the passions
  • • Includes thematic table of contents to help in syllabus construction
  • • Study questions, annotations, and introductions to each author are provided
  • • Additional and expanded readings are available on a complimentary companion website
  • • Any of Broadview’s historical editions can be packaged with the anthology at no added cost to students

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