The philosophy discussed in this volume covers a period of three hundred and fifty years, from the middle of the fourteenth century to the early years of the eighteenth century: the birth of modern philosophy. The chief topics are Renaissance philosophy and seventeenth century rationalism - in particular Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz. The volume does not deal with these movements exclusively, but places them within a wider intellectual context. It considers the scholastic thought with which Renaissance philosophy interacted; it also considers the thought of seventeenth century philosophers such as Bacon, Hobbes and Gassendi, who were not rationalists but whose thought elicited responses from the rationalists. It considers, too, the important topic of the rise of modern science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and its relations to the philosophy of the period.
This volume provides a broad, scholarly introduction to this period for students of philosophy and related disciplines, as well as some original interpretations of these authors. It includes a glossary of technical terms and a chronological table of philosophical, scientific and other cultural events.