Pauline Phemister is Reader in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. Her publications include The Rationalists: Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz (2006) and Leibniz and the Natural World: Activity, Passivity and Corporeal Substances in the Philosophy of Leibniz (2005). She has published widely on topics in early modern philosophy, especially in the areas of metaphysics, ethics and mind-body relations.