The Causation Debate in Modern Philosophy, 1637-1739

ISBN-13: 9780415914765 / Angielski / Twarda / 1998 / 252 str.

Kenneth Clatterbaugh

Opis

Examining the debate that began as modern science separated itself from natural philosophy in the 16th and 17th centuries, this text explores the two dominant approaches to causation as a metaphysical problem and as a scientific problem. As philosophy and science turned from the ideas of Aristotle that dominated western thought throughout the renaissance, one of the most pressing intellectual problems was how to replace Aristotelian science with its doctrine of the four causes. The text looks at the historical discussion as a debate that surrounds certain themes and ideas, and combines classical discussions of causation with recent thinking on the topic.

Recenzje

"The book is a most valuable companion to primary texts. Clatterbaugh writes transparently and with impressive economy. Because he gets down to business and has a lot to say about each of the figures as well as the grander picture, there will be many useful points of discussion arising from the text. The author has done a genuine service to both students and researchers." -- John M. Nicholas, The University of Western Ontario
"...insigntful, provocative, and worthy of recommendation." -- Teaching Philosophy
"...an excellent introduction to the debate in early modern philosophy over the metaphysics and epistemology of causation, particularly on the nature of the interactions between body, mind, and God." -- Philosophy in Review

Spis treści

Chapter 1 The Debate; Chapter 2 Descartes: The Metaphysics of Causation; Chapter 3 Descartes: The Epistemology of Causation; Chapter 4 Classical Mechanism: Hobbes and Gassendi; Chapter 5 The Temptation of Occasionalism: Le Grand and Malebranche; Chapter 6 Causes and Sufficient Reason: Spinoza and Leibniz; Chapter 7 The Limits of Classical Mechanism: Boyle, Rohault, and Newton; Chapter 8 The Attempted Alignment of Philosophy and Physics: Locke, Berkeley, and Hume; Chapter 9 Summation and Final Ironies;

O autorze

Kenneth Clatterbaugh is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washington. He has contributed to many journals, including The Monist, The Philosophical Review and History of Philosophy Quarterly.