Resolving the Question of Doubt: Geometrical Demonstration in the Meditations

RESOLVING THE QUESTION OF DOUBT: GEOMETRICAL DEMONSTRATION IN THE MEDITATIONSSteven BURGESS Abstract. The question of what Descartes did and did not doubt in the Meditations has received a significant amount of scholarly attention in recent years. The process of doubt in Meditation I gives one the impression of a rather extreme form of skepticism, while […]

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Equivocation in the Foundations of Leibniz’s Infinitesimal Fictions

EQUIVOCATION IN THE FOUNDATIONS OF LEIBNIZ’S INFINITESIMAL FICTIONSTzuchien THO Abstract. In this article, I address two different kinds of equivocations in reading Leibniz’s fictional infinite and infinitesimal. These equivocations form the background of a reductive reading of infinite and infinitesimal fictions either as ultimately finite or as something whose status can be taken together with […]

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Descartes and the Meteorology of the World

DESCARTES AND THE METEOROLOGY OF THE WORLD Patrick BRISSEY Abstract. Descartes claimed that he thought he could deduce the assumptions of his Meteorology by the contents of the Discourse. He actually began the Meteorology with assumptions. The content of the Discourse, moreover, does not indicate how he deduced the assumptions of the Meteorology. We seem […]

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Necessitarianism in Leibniz’s Confessio Philosophi

NECESSITARIANISM IN LEIBNIZ’S CONFESSIO PHILOSOPHI Joseph Michael ANDERSON Abstract. Leibniz’s Confessio philosophi (1672–1673) appears to provide an anti-necessitarian solution to the problem of the author of sin. I will give here a brief reading of what appear to be two solutions to the problem of the author of sin in the Confessio. The first solution […]

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Fides et Ratio in the Renaissance

FIDES ET RATIO IN THE RENAISSANCE Paul Richard Blum, Philosophy of Religion in the Renaissance(Farnham: Ashgate, 2010), ISBN-13: 9780754607816 (hbk.), 9781409402626 (ebk.), ISBN-10: CHECK, ISBN-10: 075460781X, pp. ix + 211 pp. Lucian PETRESCU Abstract. Philosophy of religion, once taken out of determined contexts such as seventeenth century Cambridge, eighteenth century salons or contemporary analytic departments, […]

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Science and Religion and the Myth of their Conflict

SCIENCE AND RELIGION AND THE MYTH OF THEIR CONFLICT Peter Harrison (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), ISBN – 10: 0521712513, ISBN – 13: 9780521712514, pp. 322. Sebastian MATEIESCU The scholarly but also the public interest in the relationship between science and religion has registered a remarkable increase […]

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Pathways in Cartesian Philosophy

PATHWAYS IN CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY Roger Ariew, Descartes among the Scholastics (Leiden: Brill, 2011), ISBN–13: 978-9004207240, ISBN–10: 9004207244, pp. xiii + 360. Revised and expanded edition of Descartes and the last Scholastics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999), ISBN–13: 978-0801436031, ISBN– 10:0801436036, pp. xii + 230. Mihai-Dragos VADANA However paradoxical it may sound, “Descartes among the Scholastics” […]

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Introduction

ARTS OF THINKING AND ARTS OF HEALING IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE: PHILOSOPHY, MEDICINE AND POLITICS INTRODUCTION ARTS, SCIENCES AND THE MEDICINE OF THE MIND: METHODOLOGICAL DISCUSSIONS IN EARLY MODERN EUROPEDana JALOBEANU* Francis Bacon’s famous division of the ‘arts intellectuall’1 gives pride of place to inquiry or ‘invention’ over judgment, memory or transmission. It is especially […]

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Consolations for Melancholy in Renaissance Humanism

CONSOLATIONS FOR MELANCHOLY IN RENAISSANCE HUMANISMAngus GOWLAND* Abstract. This essay explores the role of melancholy within the consolatory literature of Renaissance humanism. It begins (sections I-II) with a summary of the themes and methods of humanist consolationes and their classical models, with particular attention to their moral psychology, and addresses their relationship with scripture and […]

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Theories of Emotion in Etienne Chauvin’s Lexicon Philosophicum

THEORIES OF EMOTION IN ETIENNE CHAUVIN’S LEXICON PHILOSOPHICUMGiuliano GASPARRI* Abstract. This paper touches on various philosophical theories of emotion through the analysis of a few entries in the Lexicon philosophicum (1692, 17132) by EtienneChauvin: the articles “Affectus” and “Passio” (‘emotion’) and “Admiratio” (‘wonder’).Chauvin’s Lexicon is usually considered to be the first ‘modern’ philosophical dictionary. By […]

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