Gerauld de Cordemoy (1626-1684) was one of the leading French Cartesians of his day. He was the sole Cartesian atomist, and was perhaps the first to argue that Cartesian metaphysics led inescapably to occasionalism. Fred Ablondi offers the first book-length treatment in English of Cordemoy's work, filling a long-standing gap in the literature on seventeenth-century philosophical thought. Ablondi reconstructs and analyzes the arguments which Cordemoy employed to arrive at this atomism and his occasionalism, treating them as philosophically and historically important in their own right. In...

Galileo Galilei (1564 1642) is widely recognized as one of the greatest scientific thinkers in history. Intriguingly, when offered a place in the Medici court in 1610, he requested the title of -Philosopher and Chief Mathematician.- Reading Nature s Book: Galileo and the Birth of Modern Philosophy is the first book-length study written with undergraduates in mind that examines the philosophical implications (both theoretical and historical) of Galileo s scientific discoveries, including many matters that were later taken up by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophers. This...