An eBook of Early Modern Philosophy will be available in time for Fall 2021 courses. Visit our eBook information page for more info on Broadview eBooks.
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)
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)
Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
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)
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
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)
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)
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)
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)
Etienne Bonnot de Condillac (1714-1780)
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)
Lisa Shapiro is Professor of Philosophy at Simon Fraser University. Marcy P. Lascano is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kansas.
