Renaissance and Early Modern Philosophy, Volume XXVI

In this volume leading contemporary philosophical historians of the Renaissance and Early Modern periods examine the works of important figures of the fifteenth through the eighteenth century. While Midwest Studies in Philosophy has produced other volumes devoted to historical periods in philosophy, this is the first to offer such extensive and focused original materials on specific crucial figures as this volume. Original papers by twenty contemporary philosophers writing about the works of the major philosophers of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth centuries This historically and philosophically broad collection extends from such fifteenth century figures as Ficino, Machiavelli, and Pompanazzi to the work of Montesquieu in the eighteenth century

Thomas Malory (ca. 1405-1471). "Always to do ladies, damosels, and gentlewomen succour": Women and the Chivalric Code in Malory’s Morte Darthur (Felicia Ackerman). Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464). Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464): First Modern Philospher (Jasper Hopkins). Marsilius Ficino (1433-1499). Marsilio Ficino on Significatio (Michael J.B. Allen). Pietro Pomponazzi (1462-1525). Pomponazzi: Moral Virtue in a Deterministic Universe (John L. Treloar). John Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494). The Secret of Pico’s Oration: Cabala and Renaissance Philosophy (Brian P. Copenhaver). Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527). Between Republic and Monarchy? Liberty, Security, and the Kingdom of France in Machiavelli (Cary J. Nederman and Tatiana V. Gómez). Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). Montaigne, An Apology for Raymond Sebond: Happiness and the Poverty of Reason (Bruce Silver). Giordano Bruno (1548-1600). The Natural Philosophy of Giordano Bruno (Hilary Gatti). Francis Bacon (1561-1626). Francis Bacon and the Humanistic Aspects of Modernity (Rose-Mary Sargent). Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). Hobbes’s Atheism (Douglas M. Jesseph). Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655). New Wine in Old Bottles: Gassendi and the Aristotelian Origin of Physics (Margaret J. Osler). Rene Descartes (1596-1650). Descartes, Mechanics, and the Mechanical Philosophy (Daniel Garber). Antoine Arnauld (1612-1694). "Presence" and "Likeness" in Arnauld’s Critique of Malebranche (Nancy Kendrick). Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). Pascal’s Wagers (Jeff Jordan). Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) and Levi ben Gershon (Gersonides) Eternity and Immortality in Spinoza’s Ethics (Steven Nadler). Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715). Occasionalism and Efficacious Laws in Malebranche (Nicholas Jolley). Pierre Bayle (1647-1706). What Kind of a Skeptic Was Bayle (Thomas M. Lennon). Charles de Montesquieu (1689-1755. From Locke’s Letter to Montesquieu’s Lettres (Edwin Curley). Contributors.