Ideas and Mechanism

by Wilson, Margaret Dauler

• ISBN13: 9780691004716
• ISBN10: 0691004714
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-03-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

For more than three decades, Margaret Wilson's essays on early modern philosophy have influenced scholarly debate. Many are considered classics in the field and remain as important today as they were when they were first published. Until now, however, they have never been available in book form and some have been particularly difficult to find. This collection not only provides access to nearly all of Wilson's most significant work, but also demonstrates the continuity of her thought over time. These essays show that Wilson possesses a keen intelligence, coupled with a fearlessness in tackling the work of early modern philosophers as well as the writing of modern commentators. Many of the pieces collected here respond to philosophical issues of continuing importance.The thirty-one essays gathered here deal with some of the best known early philosophers, including Descartes, Leibniz, Locke, Spinoza, and Berkeley. As this collection shows, Wilson is a demanding critic. She repeatedly asks whether the philosophers' arguments were adequate to the problems they were trying to solve and whether these arguments remain compelling today. She is not afraid to engage in complex argument but, at the same time, her own writing remains clear and fresh. Ideas and Mechanism is an essential collection of work by one of the leading scholars of our era.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Editions and Abbreviations	p. xv
Skepticism without Indubitability	p. 3
Descartes on Sense and "Resemblance"	p. 10
Descartes on the Perception of Primary Qualities	p. 26
Descartes on the Origin of Sensation	p. 41
Descartes on the Representationality of Sensation	p. 69
Descartes: The Epistemological Argument for Mind-Body Distinctness	p. 84
True and Immutable Natures	p. 94
Can I Be the Cause of My Idea of the World? (Descartes on the Infinite and Indefinite)	p. 108
Objects, Ideas, and "Minds": Comments on Spinoza's Theory of Mind	p. 126
Spinoza's Causal Axiom (Ethics I, Axiom 4)	p. 141
Infinite Understanding, Scientia Intuitiva, and Ethics I.16	p. 166
"For They Do Not Agree in Nature with Us": Spinoza on the Lower Animals	p. 178
Superadded Properties: The Limits of Mechanism in Locke	p. 196
Discussion: Superadded Properties: A Reply to M. R. Ayers	p. 209
Did Berkeley Completely Misunderstand the Basis of the Primary-Secondary Quality Distinction in Locke?	p. 215
Berkeley on the Mind-Dependence of Colors	p. 229
Berkeley and the Essence of the Corpuscularians	p. 243
The Issue of "Common Sensibles" in Berkeley's New Theory of Vision	p. 257
Kant and "The Dogmatic Idealism of Berkeley"	p. 276
The "Phenomenalisms" of Berkeley and Kant	p. 294
The "Phenomenalisms" of Leibniz and Berkeley	p. 306
Confused Ideas	p. 322
Confused vs. Distinct Perception in Leibniz: Consciousness, Representation, and God's Mind	p. 336
Leibniz and Locke on "First Truths"	p. 353
Leibniz: Self-Consciousness and Immortality in the Paris Notes and After	p. 373
Leibniz and Materialsm	p. 388
Possible Gods	p. 407
Leibniz's Dynamics and Contingency in Nature	p. 421
Compossibility and Law	p. 442
History of Philosophy in Philosophy Today; and the Case of the Sensible Qualities	p. 455
Animal Ideas	p. 495
Sources and Acknowledgments	p. 513
Index	p. 515
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