Hellenistic and Early Modern Philosophy

Cambridge University Press, 6/26/2003
EAN 9780521823852, ISBN10: 0521823854

Hardcover, 344 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English

Early modern philosophers looked for inspiration to the later ancient thinkers when they rebelled against the dominant Platonic and Aristotelian traditions. The impact of the Hellenistic philosophers (principally the Stoics, Epicureans and Skeptics) on such philosophers as Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza and Locke was profound and is ripe for reassessment. This collection of essays offers precisely that. Leading historians of philosophy explore the connections between Hellenistic and early modern philosophy in ways that take advantage of new scholarly and philosophical advances. The essays display a challenging range of methods and will be an invaluable point of reference for philosophers, historians of ideas and classicists.

List of abbreviations
Notes on contributors
Preface Jon Miller and Brad Inwood
Introduction J. B. Schneewind
1. Stoicism in the philosophical tradition
Spinoza, Lipsius, Butler A. A. Long
2. Early modern uses of Hellenistic philosophy
Gassendi's epicurean project Margaret J. Osler
3. Locke's offices Phillip Mitsis
4. Patience sans Espérance
Leibniz's critique of stoicism Donald Rutherford
5. Epicureanism in early modern philosophy
Leibniz and his contemporaries Catherine Wilson
6. Stoics, Grotius and Spinoza on moral deliberation Jon Miller
7. The Discourse on the Method and the tradition of intellectual autobiography Stephen Menn
8. Subjectivity, ancient and modern
the Cyrenaics, Sextus and Descartes Gail Fine
9. Spinoza and Philo
the alleged mysticism in the Ethics Steven Nadler
10. Hume's scepticism and ancient scepticisms Donald C. Ainslie
11. Stoic naturalism in Butler Terence Irwin
Bibliography of primary sources
Bibliography of secondary sources
Index (general)
Index (of selected text passages).