Thomas Holden presents a fascinating study of theories of the structure and internal architecture of matter in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Are the parts of material bodies actual or potential entities? Is matter infinitely divisible? Do all material bodies resolve to actual first parts? All the great philosophers and philosopher-scientists of the period address these issues, including Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Hume, and Kant. Holden offers a brilliant synthesis of these discussions and his own overarching interpretation of the debate.

Thomas Holden presents a fascinating study of theories of the structure and internal architecture of matter in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Are the parts of material bodies actual or potential entities? Is matter infinitely divisible? Do all material bodies resolve to actual first parts? All the great philosophers and philosopher-scientists of the period address these issues, including Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Hume, and Kant. Holden offers a brilliant synthesis of these discussions and his own overarching interpretation of the debate.

Spectres of False Divinity presents a historical and critical interpretation of Hume's rejection of the existence of a deity with moral attributes. In Hume's view, no first cause or designer responsible for the ordered universe could possibly have moral attributes; nor could the existence (or non-existence) of such a being have any real implications for human practice or conduct. Hume's case for this 'moral atheism' is a central plank of both his naturalistic agenda in metaphysics and his secularizing program in moral theory. It complements his wider critique of traditional theism, and...