Modern Philosophy: The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries

316 Pages·2003·1.07 MB·English

by  Richard Francks

Modern Philosophy
Modern Philosophy is an exploration of the ideas of six major
thinkers from Descartes to Hume. It takes a fresh and engaging
look at the common themes that dominate this period, as well as
examining the differences in the work of the six philosophers.
Through vivid and witty prose, Richard Francks skilfully pre-
sents ideas that have informed the development of philosophy
as we know it, and which present a challenge to beliefs and atti-
tudes that most of us now share. In this work we find the source of
modern philosophical inquiry – questions such as the existence
of God, the Mind and Body problem, the idea of the self and the
existence of the world had their birth in these texts – as well as
broader questions about political and social philosophy.
Thinkers discussed:
René Descartes John Locke
Baruch Spinoza George Berkeley
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz David Hume
This book will be ideal for anybody coming to the ideas of these
philosophers for the first time.
Richard Francks is Director of Undergraduate Studies in the
School of Philosophy at the University of Leeds.
Fundamentals of Philosophy
Series Editor: John Shand
This series presents an up-to-date set of engrossing, accurate
and lively introductions to all the core areas of philosophy. Each
volume is written by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable teacher
of the area in question. Care has been taken to produce works that
while even-handed are not mere bland expositions, and as such
are original pieces of philosophy in their own right. The reader
should not only be well informed by the series, but also experience
the intellectual excitement of being engaged in philosophical
debate itself. The volumes serve as an essential basis for the
undergraduate courses to which they relate, as well as being
accessible and absorbing for the general reader. Together they
comprise an indispensable library of living philosophy.
Published:
Richard Francks
Modern Philosophy
Dudley Knowles
Political Philosophy
Piers Benn
Ethics
Alexander Bird
Philosophy of Science
Stephen Burwood, Paul Gilbert and Kathleen Lennon
Philosophy of Mind
Colin Lyas
Aesthetics
Alexander Miller
Philosophy of Language
Forthcoming:
Greg Restall
Logic
Suzanne Stern-Gillet
Ancient Philosophy
Simon Glendinning
Continental Philosophy
Modern Philosophy
The seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries
Richard Francks
First published 2003 by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
© 2003 Richard Francks
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
ISBN 0-203-50117-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-56071-X (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 1–857–28762–2 (hbk)
ISBN 1–857–28565–4 (pbk)
To P.
Sine qua non

Contents
Preface xv
Acknowledgements xvii
1 Introduction: How modern is ‘Modern’ philosophy? 1
Six ‘Modern’ philosophers 1
Appearance and Reality, or two kinds of expert 3
The shock of the old 6
PART 1
René Descartes 9
2 Material Monism or the Great Soup of Being:
Descartes’ account of the natural world 11
Overview 11
Material Monism: Descartes’ universal soup of matter 12
Telling things apart: individuation in a plenum 13
Moving things around: the nature of motion in a
plenum 18
How matter moves: the laws of motion and
the mathematisation of Nature 19
vii
CONTENTS
Examples 21
Example 1: creation of the Earth and the solar system 22
Example 2: the human body 23
Reading 24
Questions to ask 24
3 The possibility of atheism: Descartes and God 26
God and the world 26
God the clock-maker 27
The God of science 29
Reading 33
Questions to ask 34
4 The limits of mechanism: the place of human
beings in Descartes’ world 35
The limits of mechanism 35
People v. animals: four differences 37
Reading 42
Questions to ask 42
5 Selling the picture: Descartes’ story of doubt and
discovery 43
Selling the picture 43
Descartes’ fictional quest 47
Emptying the barrel: the doubt 48
Re-establishing the world 51
Reading 58
Questions to ask 58
viii
CONTENTS
PART 2
Baruch Spinoza 59
6 God, or Nature? Spinoza’s pantheism 61
Overview 61
Spinoza’s pantheism 62
God or Nature 63
Pantheism or atheism – God, or Nature? 69
Reading 73
Questions to ask 74
7 The attribute of thought 75
Descartes on the mind 75
Spoinoza’s panpsychism: the mind as part of nature 78
Reading 83
Questions to ask 84
8 Spinoza’s ethics: metaphysics and the life of man 85
Ethics and the Ethics: metaphysics and the life of man 85
The mind and consciousness 86
Psycho-physical parallelism? 88
Spinozan psychology 89
Life, death and the individual 91
Ethics and the good life for people 93
Reading 98
Questions to ask 98
PART 3
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 99
9 The Principle of Sufficient Reason 101
Overview 101
ix