The Correspondence of René Descartes: A Philosophy that Takes too Many Liberties? René Descartes, Corespondenţa completă. Vol.I. 1607-1638, ed. Vlad Alexandrescu, trans. Vlad Alexandrescu, Robert Arnăutu, Robert Lazu, Călin Cristian Pop, Mihai-Dragoş Vădana, Grigore Vida (Iaşi: Polirom, 2014), ISBN- 978-973-46-4245-8, 858 pp. Oana ŞERBAN Considered an intimate instrument of expressing ideas and arguing different theoretical […]
Author: dti
Notebooks and Baconianism in Early Modern England
Notebooks and Baconianism in Early Modern England Richard Yeo, Notebooks, English Virtuosi, and Early Modern Science (University of Chicago Press: Chicago & London, 2014), ISBN 9780226106564 and 6731 (e-book), 384 pp. Claudia DUMITRU This book is an examination of the practice of note-taking in the scientific circles of seventeenth-century England, with a focus on the […]
The Quest for Certainty at the Crossroads of Science, Religion, and Philosophy in the Early Modern Period Introduction
The Quest for Certainty at the Crossroads of Science, Religion, and Philosophy in the Early Modern Period Introduction Invited editor: Claudia DUMITRU* In some ways, the problem of certainty affords us a privileged glimpse into the early modern period. It opens up the discussion of what constitutes adequate knowledge in general, of how and to […]
The Search after Moral Certainty. The Origins of Malebranche’s Project of a Science of Ethics and its Development in his Treatise On Ethics
The Search after Moral Certainty. The Origins of Malebranche’s Project of a Science of Ethics and its Development in his Treatise On Ethics Elena MUCENI* Abstract. Inspired by the Cartesian plan to construct a universal system of science based on certain knowledge, the Oratorian philosopher Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715) attempts to found a “science” of ethics […]
Individual Certainty and Common Truth: Leibniz’s Philosophical Grounds for Toleration
Individual Certainty and Common Truth: Leibniz’s Philosophical Grounds for Toleration Mariangela PRIAROLO* Abstract. A noteworthy aspect of the theological controversies arisen both in Catholic and in Protestant fields after the Reformation is the use of Cartesian philosophy for supporting the respective creeds. Theologians such as Antoine Arnauld or Pierre Jurieu appeal to Descartes’s theory of […]
Spinoza’s True Religion: The Modern Origins of a Contemporary Floating Signifier
Spinoza’s True Religion: The Modern Origins of a Contemporary Floating Signifier Anya TOPOLSKI Abstract. It is my aim in this paper to demonstrate that the notion of true religion, in the wake of Spinoza’s Tractatus, is a floating signifier. A floating signifier is a signifier with a changing signification. What makes true religion a particularly […]
Attenuated Deism and Hume’s Propensity to Believe
Attenuated Deism and Hume’s Propensity to Believe C.M. LORKOWSKI* Abstract. In this paper, I argue that a weak, attenuated belief in a deity is a natural belief for Hume, that is, a belief provided naturally rather than by reason. The main opposition to this reading comes from the fact that such belief is not universal, […]
Kant’s Touchstone of Communication and the Public Use of Reason
Kant’s Touchstone of Communication and the Public Use of Reason Lawrence PASTERNACK Abstract. Nearly all of the work that has been done on Kant’s conception of public reason has focused on its socio-political significance. John Rawls, Onora O’Neill and others have explored its relevance to a well ordered democracy, to pluralism, to toleration, and so […]
The Day in Which All Cows Are White: Spinoza’s Acosmism in Another Light
The Day in Which All Cows Are White: Spinoza’s Acosmism in Another Light Jason DOCKSTADER Abstract. In this essay, I aim to defend Spinoza against Hegel’s claim that he annihilated finite things and the real differences they instantiate. To counter Hegel’s charge of acosmism, I try to conceive of a Spinozist kind of acosmism that […]
Philosophical Aspects of Philipp Melanchthon’s Œuvre
Philosophical Aspects of Philipp Melanchthon’s Œuvre Der Philosoph Melanchthon, ed. G. Frank and F. Mundt (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012), ISBN 978-3-11-026098-4, e-ISBN 978-3-11-026099-1, pp. 241 Sandra DRAGOMIR The purpose of the collective volume “Der Philosoph Melanchthon” edited by Günter Frank and Felix Mundt is to move the famous Reformer Philipp Melanchthon in the focus of […]