Anstey - The idea of principles in early modern thought interdisciplinary perspectives

This fascinating collection provides case studies allowing the reader to appreciate how many and how varied are the ways in which the concept of a principle has been deployed and to what effect in the early modern period.

Margaret Atherton, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA

This collection presents the first sustained examination of the nature and status of the idea of principles in early modern thought. Principles are almost ubiquitous in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: the term appears in famous book titles, such as Newtons Principia; the notion plays a central role in the thought of many leading philosophers, such as Leibnizs Principle of Sufficient Reason; and many of the great discoveries of the period, such as the Law of Gravitational Attraction, were described as principles.

Ranging from mathematics and law to chemistry, from natural and moral philosophy to natural theology, and covering some of the leading thinkers of the period, this volume presents ten compelling new essays that illustrate the centrality and importance of the idea of principles in early modern thought. It contains chapters by leading scholars in the field, including the Leibniz scholar Daniel Garber and the historian of chemistry William R. Newman, as well as exciting, emerging scholars, such as the Newton scholar Kirsten Walsh and a leading expert on experimental philosophy, Alberto Vanzo. The Idea of Principles in Early Modern Thought: Interdiscplinary Perspectives charts the terrain of one of the periods central concepts for the first time, and opens up new lines for further research.

Peter R. Anstey is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. He specializes in early modern philosophy with a particular focus on the philosophy of John Locke, experimental philosophy, and the philosophy of principles. He is the author of John Locke and Natural Philosophy (2011) and editor of The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century (2013).

For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com

7The Philosophy of John Locke

New Perspectives

Edited by Peter R. Anstey

8Receptions of Descartes

Cartesianism and Anti-Cartesianism in Early Modern Europe

Edited by Tad M. Schmaltz

9Material Falsity and Error in Descartes Meditations

Cecilia Wee

10Leibnizs Final System

Monads, Matter, and Animals

Glenn A. Hartz

11Pierre Bayles Cartesian Metaphysics

Rediscovering Early Modern Philosophy

Todd Ryan

12Insiders and Outsiders in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy

Edited by G.A.J. Rogers, Tom Sorell and Jill Kraye

13Vanishing Matter and the Laws of Nature

Descartes and Beyond

Edited by Dana Jalobeanu and Peter R. Anstey

14Locke and Leibniz on Substance

Edited by Paul Lodge and Tom Stoneham

15Lockes Science of Knowledge

Matthew Priselac

16The Idea of Principles in Early Modern Thought

Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Edited by Peter R. Anstey

Source: Reproduced with permission of Bibliothque nationale de France

The Idea of Principles in Early Modern Thought

Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Edited by Peter R. Anstey

First published 2017

by Routledge

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Anstey, Peter R., 1962 editor.
Title: The idea of principles in early modern thought : interdisciplinary
perspectives / edited by Peter R. Anstey.
Description: 1 [edition]. | New York : Routledge, 2017. | Series:
Routledge studies in seventeenth-century philosophy ; 16 | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016053822 | ISBN 9781138211582 (hardback : alk.
paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Philosophy, Modern17th century.
Classification: LCC B801 .I34 2017 | DDC 190dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016053822

ISBN: 978-1-138-21158-2 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-45269-2 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon

by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Contents

PETER R. ANSTEY

JAMES FRANKLIN

J. C. CAMPBELL

WILLIAM R. NEWMAN

SOPHIE ROUX

ALBERTO VANZO

MICHAEL LEBUFFE

KIRSTEN WALSH

DANIEL GARBER

PETER R. ANSTEY

KIYOSHI SHIMOKAWA

Guide

Bacon

SEH	The Works of Francis Bacon, 14 vols, eds. J. Spedding, R. L. Ellis, and D. D. Heath, London, 18611879. Cited as SEH, volume number, and page number.

Descartes

AT	uvres de Descartes, 11 vols, eds. C. Adam and P. Tannery, Paris: Vrin, 1996. Cited as AT, volume number, and page number.

Grotius

DJBP	The Rights of War and Peace, 3 vols, ed. R. Tuck, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005. English translation of De jure belli ac pacis libri tres, in quibus jus Naturae & Gentium, item juris publici praecipua explicantur, editio nova, Amsterdam: Apud Ioannem Blaev, 1667.

Guglielmini

Reflections

Riflessioni filosofiche dedotte dalle figure de sali: Espresse in un discorso recitato nellAccademia Filosofica Esperimentale di Monsign. Arcidiacono Marsigli la sera delli 21. Marzo 1688, Bologna, 1688.

Hobbes

Leviathan

Leviathan, ed. J.C.A. Gaskin, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996; 1st edn 1651.

Hume

Enquiry	An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, ed. T. L. Beauchamp, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998; 1st edn 1751.
Treatise	A Treatise of Human Nature, Vol. 1, eds. D. F. Norton and M. J. Norton, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2007; 1st edn 17391740.

Leibniz

A	(1923) Smtliche Schriften und Briefe, Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin (eds.), Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. Cited as A, followed by series, volume, and page number.