History, 17th & 18th Century Books - Page 2

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

John Locke

Amazon Price: $9.95 List Price: $9.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Hackett Publishing Company Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $3.78

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Consciousness & Thought
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Epistemology
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History, 17th & 18th Century

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Only to Be Used in Scholarly Research 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 23 people found this review helpful.

The Nidditch edition of Locke's Essay is commonly considered the authoritative version of the text. This in mind, the Nidditch text is to be avoided for the beginner to Locke. This is not due to any oversights or editorial intrusion that corrupts the work. Considering Nidditch restored the text and avoided the common editorial tendency to use paragraph introductions for each section (which Locke did not), atop of not having to contend with translation liberties, it stands as the only scholarly edition of the work. However, because it is restored to its original state, one must remember that capitalization for any and all (deemed) pertinent terms or phrases was a common practice during Locke's time. As such, readers in the 21st century typically associate a capitalized letter (unless it is a proper name or title) with a new sentence, thus a new thought. Having to continuously reorganize one's thoughts to conform to Locke's now archaic prose style (which occurs anywhere from one to six or more times in a typical sentence) distracts from the overall content of the work. As such, the reader may be well advised to obtain another critical edition of the work and use the Nidditch text as a reference tool.

Editorial Review:

In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, first published in 1690, John Locke (1632 1704) provides a complete account of how we acquire everyday, mathematical, natural scientific, religious and ethical knowledge. Rejecting the theory that some knowledge is innate in us, Locke argues that it derives from sense perceptions and experience, as analysed and developed by reason. While defending these central claims with vigorous common sense, Locke offers many incidental - and highly influential - reflections on space and time, meaning, free will and personal identity. The result is a powerful, pioneering work, which, together with Descartes's works, largely set the agenda for modern philosophy.

Pensees and Other Writings (Oxford World's Classics)

Blaise Pascal

Amazon Price: $9.56 List Price: $11.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Oxford University Press, USA Amazon Marketplace: 34 new & used starting at $7.21

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Free Will & Determinism
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History, 17th & 18th Century
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Modern

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

'The Great Pascal' 5 out of 5 stars.
27 of 28 people found this review helpful.

This Oxford's version of the Pensees is in some ways superior to the Penguin Classics version. The introduction, by Anthony Levi, gives a much better insight into the history behind the development of Pascal's 'thoughts'. As far as the biography is concerned, Oxford's version gives a much broader span of time concerning Blaise's life.

A lot of people blame Pascal for not being like Montaigne, but that is just foolish. I enjoy Pascal's style because of its originality, and there also seems to me to be a similiar style between both men--espcially in how they both change ideas in a brief span of time. I believe Montainge originally meant to make his 'essays' a collection of expanded sayings and maxims but it took another form, and Pascal maybe wanted his 'pensees' to be his magnum opus by turning it into a large book that would be something like Montaign's Essays. Both men, I guess, envisioned something different from their final product and both of them left a legacy that was fruitful and informative, and their works shouldn't be compared as two competing styles since they are so different from one another in both format and intention.

And after reading Pascal's 'Discussion with Monsieur de Sacy', I was struck by Pascal's shear brilliance. He is a giant of a writer and is one of the cleanest writers I have ever read.

Editorial Review:

For much of his life, Pascal (1623-62) worked on a magnum opus which was never published in the form the philosopher intended. Instead, Pascal left a mass of fragments, some of them meant as notes for the Apologie. These became known as the Pensees, and they occupy a crucial place in Western philosophy and religious writing. This translation is the only one based on the Pensees as Pascal left them. It includes the principal dossiers classified by Pascal, as well as the essential portion of his important Writings on Grace.

The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World

Matthew Stewart

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: W. W. Norton Amazon Marketplace: 66 new & used starting at $4.93

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Ethics & Morality
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History, 17th & 18th Century

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"A colorful reinterpretation…. Stewart's wit and profluent prose make this book a fascinating read."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Philosophy in the late seventeenth century was a dangerous business. No careerist could afford to know the reclusive, controversial philosopher Baruch de Spinoza. Yet the wildly ambitious genius Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who denounced Spinoza in public, became privately obsessed with Spinoza's ideas, wrote him clandestine letters, and ultimately met him in secret.

"In refreshingly lucid terms" (Booklist) Matthew Stewart "rescues both men from a dusty academic shelf, bringing them to life as enlightened humans" (Library Journal) central to the religious, political, and personal battles that gave birth to the modern age. Both men put their faith in the guidance of reason, but one spent his life defending a God he may not have believed in, while the other believed in a God who did not need his defense. Ultimately, the two thinkers represent radically different approaches to the challenges of the modern era. They stand for a choice that we all must make.

Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

Charles de Montesquieu

Amazon Price: $25.19 List Price: $27.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 69 new & used starting at $3.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History, 17th & 18th Century
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Reference

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Important book in the history of ideas 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 15 people found this review helpful.

There are mainly two reasons why Montequieu's book is important. One is for his ideas, which still have relevance for current political issues, such as separation of church and state. The second is that it represents an important historical milestone in political thought. The real bonus is that, in the translation, his work reads in a way that is both intellectually engaging, by which I mean he gets you thinking about the issues, and also engaging (if entertaining is not quite the right word) as a series of philosophical perspectives delivered in a direct way generally free of jargon.
The most interesting part of his book for me was at the outset, in his comparison of despotism, republics and democracy.
The really important aspect of his book is that so many of the threshold policitical issues that he discusses are still live issues. How much should the state intervene? What constitutes good laws? What parts of life in a political society are the business of the state?

Editorial Review:

The Spirit of the Laws is without question one of the central texts in the history of eighteenth-century thought, yet there has been no complete scholarly English language edition since 1750. This lucid translation renders Montesquieu's problematic text newly accessible to a fresh generation of students, helping them to understand why Montesquieu was such an important figure in the early enlightenment and why The Spirit of the Laws was such an influence on those who framed the American Constitution. Fully annotated, this edition focuses on Montesquieu's use of sources and his text as a whole, rather than on those opening passages toward which critical energies have traditionally been devoted.

Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography

Maria Rosa Antognazza

Amazon Price: $35.29 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 31 new & used starting at $24.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Historical Study -> History of Ideas
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History & Surveys
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History, 17th & 18th Century

Editorial Review:

Of all the thinkers of the century of genius that inaugurated modern philosophy, none lived an intellectual life more rich and varied than Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). Trained as a jurist and employed as a counsellor, librarian, and historian, he made famous contributions to logic, mathematics, physics, and metaphysics, yet viewed his own aspirations as ultimately ethical and theological, and married these theoretical concerns with politics, diplomacy, and an equally broad range of practical reforms: juridical, economic, administrative, technological, medical, and ecclesiastical. Maria Rosa Antognazza's pioneering biography not only surveys the full breadth and depth of these theoretical interests and practical activities, it also weaves them together for the first time into a unified portrait of this unique thinker and the world from which he came. At the centre of the huge range of Leibniz's apparently miscellaneous endeavours, Antognazza reveals a single master project lending unity to his extraordinarily multifaceted life's work. Throughout the vicissitudes of his long life, Leibniz tenaciously pursued the dream of a systematic reform and advancement of all the sciences, to be undertaken as a collaborative enterprise supported by an enlightened ruler; these theoretical pursuits were in turn ultimately grounded in a practical goal: the improvement of the human condition and thereby the celebration of the glory of God in His creation. As well as tracing the threads of continuity that bound these theoretical and practical activities to this all-embracing plan, this illuminating study also traces these threads back into the intellectual traditions of the Holy Roman Empire in which Leibniz lived and throughout the broader intellectual networks that linked him to patrons in countries as distant as Russia and to correspondents as far afield as China.

Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy: With Selections from the Objections and Replies (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy)

Rene Descartes, Karl Ameriks, Desmond M. Clarke

Amazon Price: $14.39 List Price: $15.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 159 new & used starting at $1.82

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History, 17th & 18th Century
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Modern
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Descartes Meditations on the First Philosophiies 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I needed this book for my doctoral studies. I needed it for research and needed it quickly. I am very pleased with the delivery service and the book

Be careful! 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Be Careful! This is NOT the translation described in the Amazon reviews. It is a the unreadable one by Heffernan. This edition is useful only for its Latin text. The facing English can be used as an aid to the reader, but is often so stiff and convoluted as to be unreadable as English. The fifty-page introduction is full of trivia and misinterpretations. The volume is quite justifiably out of print!

Magesterial work which profoundly changed history 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

In the 17th century, the world underwent dramatic and incredible changes. The Scientific Revolution was gathering pace, Europeans had experienced the Reformation and the Renaissance, and boundaries and horizons in all areas were being expanded and changed at a breakneck pace.

Into this time of upheaval comes Descartes, one of the greatest Philosophers to ever live anywhere in the world. While 'modern' philosophy, which broke off its roots from Scholasticism, does not necessarily begin only with Descartes, it is true in Descartes the agenda of post-Scholastic philosophy is most clearly and beautifully expressed in logical terms.

Descartes's project is to take into account the implications of the scientific revolution for philosophy; for Descartes, it is no longer religious authority or pure philosophical speculation which tells us the most accurate truths about the cosmos, but science based on observation and the use of mathematical and logical methods employed by the aid of natural human reason.

Descartes sets into motion an astonishing project into motion; to basically remove Scholasticism and its corrupt and inept attempts to understand the universe and replace it with a complete and unified system of knowledge, based on certain truths clear and knowable to anyone, whatever their class or background.

Descartes, following a plan of 'meditation', withdraws from the senses and attempts to consider the universe as it is to the intellect. Descartes carefully invokes several skeptical doubts about our knowledge, the existence of the external world, and our own existence and attempts to set out what he felt was true and what is not. The famous phrase 'Cogito ergo sum' is one result, though Descartes's overall system and arguments are more complex.

Descartes argues that the cogito, along with the goodness of God who does not make a creature merely in order to decieve it, ensures there are certain and indutible truths about ourselves and the world which will ensure his project will be a successful one. But Descartes encourages the reader not merely to accept his arguments but to put them into practice themselves, hoping in doing so they will discover new truths about the universe which will be plain to anyone using the light of reason.

Descartes in his other works uses this method as a justification for his approach to science and mathematics. Descartes was in every sense a polymath; a trained lawyer, an excellent writer, a student of human anatomy (in which Descartes made many pioneering experiments and observations), a brilliant philosopher and (for his time) physicist, and a mathematician of genius. However, while much of his science is now plainly wrong and was superseded by better scientists such as Galileo and Newton, the agenda Descartes set for philosophy remains much the same even today, especially in the Analytic tradition. Philosophy owes to Descartes two great achievements, one, in applying more rigorous logical methods to philosophical problems while paying attention to the results of science, and second, the re-introduction of skepticism into philosophy which provides a valuable check against dogmatism, but which would only truely be extended to its fullest possible means by David Hume.

Whether or not one ultimately agrees with Descartes's arguments, it must be acknowledged he is a great geius who stands shoulder to shoulder with people like David Hume, Liebniz, Spinoza and Kant, who all radically changed the way philosophers look at the world and the problems it poses.

Editorial Review:

This authoritative translation by John Cottingham of the Meditations is taken from the much acclaimed three-volume Cambridge edition of the Philosophical Writings of Descartes. It is based on the best available texts and presents Descartes' central metaphysical writings in clear, readable modern English.

The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Story of Philosophers, God, and Evil

Steven Nadler

Amazon Price: $16.50 List Price: $25.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $12.89

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Good & Evil
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History, 17th & 18th Century

Editorial Review:

In the spring of 1672, the German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz arrived in Paris on a furtive diplomatic mission. That project was abandoned quickly, but Leibniz remained in Paris with a singular goal: to get the most out of the city’s intellectual and cultural riches. He benefited, above all, from his friendships with France’s two greatest philosopher-theologians of the period, Antoine Arnauld and Nicolas de Malebranche. The interactions of these three men would prove of great consequence not only for Leibniz’s own philosophy but for the development of modern philosophical and religious thought. Despite their wildly different views and personalities, the three philosophers shared a single, passionate concern: resolving the problem of evil. Why is it that, in a world created by an allpowerful, all-wise, and infinitely just God, there is sin and suffering? Why do bad things happen to good people, and good things to bad people? This is the story of a clash between radically divergent worldviews. But it is also a very personal story. At its heart are the dramatic—and often turbulent—relationships between three brilliant and resolute individuals. In this lively and engaging book, Steven Nadler brings to life a debate that obsessed its participants, captivated European intellectuals, and continues to inform our ways of thinking about God, morality, and the world.

Emile: Or, On Education

Jean-jacques Rousseau, Michael Wu, Allan Bloom

Amazon Price: $23.35 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Basic Books Amazon Marketplace: 76 new & used starting at $2.93

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Alan Bloom’s new translation of Emile, Rousseau’s masterpiece on the education and training of the young, is the first in more than seventy years. In it, Bloom, whose magnificent translation of Plato’s Republic has been universally hailed as a virtual rediscovery of that timeless text, again brings together the translator’s gift for journeying between two languages and cultures and the philosopher’s perception of the true meaning and significance of the issues being examined in the work. The result is a clear, readable, and highly engrossing text that at the same time offers a wholly new sense of the importance and relevance of Rousseau’s thought to us.In addition to his translation, Bloom provides a brilliant introduction that relates the structure and themes of the book to the vital preoccupation's of our own age, particularly in the field of education, but also more generally to the current concerns about the limits and possibilities of human nature. Thus in this translation Emile, long a classic in the history of Western thought and educational theory, becomes something more: a prescription, fresh and dazzling, for the bringing up of autonomous, responsible—that is, truly democratic—human beings.

Two Treatises of Government

John Locke

Amazon Price: $11.69 List Price: $12.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 223 new & used starting at $0.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> World -> 17th Century
Subjects -> History -> World -> General
Subjects -> History -> World -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Most Representative Thinker in Anglo-American Tradition 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

John Locke (1632-1704) wrote "Second Treatise of Government" in 1690, it was the main political philosophical source that our "Founding Fathers" went to in writing the "Declaration of Independence" and in forming our government. I think you should know something of Locke to understand what influenced his thinking. His father was a small landowner, attorney, Puritan and his political sympathies were with the Cromwell Parliament. Like Hobbes, Locke attended Oxford Univ. and did not think much about the curriculum or his professors. Most of his education came from reading books in the Univ. library. Renee Descartes and Sir Isaac Newton's writings greatly influenced Locke. Like Hobbes, he took a tutoring job teaching the son of the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, and traveled Europe. His friendship with the Earl was beneficial in obtaining government appointments. During the political unrest in England, (1679-83) he fled to Holland because his liberal notions put him at odds with the government.

Locke writes the "Second Treatise of Government" to justify the Revolt of 1688 and the ascension of William of Orange to the English throne. The book argues against two lines of absolutist ideas. The first is Sir Robert Filmer's "patriarchal theory of divine right of kings; secondly, Hobbes argument for the sovereign's absolute power in his book "Leviathan." Locke argues that government emanates from the people. Locke's treatise rests like other political writings on its interpretation of human nature. He sees our nature opposite the way Hobbes did, decent and not as selfish or competitive. Man is more inclined to join society through reason and not fear. Man prefers stability to change.

His very important contribution to "law of nature" theory was his bias toward individualism. In state of nature, before government, men were free independent, equal enjoying inalienable rights "chief among them being life, liberty, and property." Where have you read that before? Property rights receive much attention in this treatise. Locke argues that government based on consent of man can still preserve freedom independence and equality.

His political writing had immediate influence in the world and influenced our founding fathers in their struggle against tyranny. He is an excellent writer and his theories are easy to understand by the laymen. As a graduate student of political philosophy, I recommend if you have an interest in politics, philosophy, or government then you must read Locke's "Second Treatise of Government"

Editorial Review:

This is a new revised version of Dr. Laslett's standard edition of Two Treatises. First published in 1960, and based on an analysis of the whole body of Locke's publications, writings, and papers. The Introduction and text have been revised to incorporate references to recent scholarship since the second edition and the bibliography has been updated.

Spinoza: Practical Philosophy

Gilles Deleuze

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: City Lights Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $7.34

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Ethics & Morality
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History, 17th & 18th Century
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Spinoza's theoretical philosophy is one of the most radical attempts to construct a pure ontology with a single infinite substance. This book, which presents Spinoza's main ideas in dictionary form, has as its subject the opposition between ethics and morality, and the link between ethical and ontological propositions. His ethics is an ethology, rather than a moral science. Attention has been drawn to Spinoza by deep ecologists such as Arne Naess, the Norwegian philosopher; and this reading of Spinoza by Deleuze lends itself to a radical ecological ethic. As Robert Hurley says in his introduction, "Deleuze opens us to the idea that the elements of the different individuals we compose may be nonhuman within us. One wonders, finally, whether Man might be defined as a territory, a set of boundaries, a limit on existence."

Gilles Deleuze, known for his inquiries into desire, language, politics, and power, finds a kinship between Spinoza and Nietzsche. He writes, ""Spinoza did not believe in hope or even in courage; he believed only in joy and in vision . . . he more than any other gave me the feeling of a gust of air from behind each time I read him, of a witch's broom that he makes one mount.

Gilles Deleuze was a professor of philosophy at the University of Paris at Vincennes. Robert Hurley is the translator of Michel Foucault's History of Sexuality.