1st Edition

Powers and Abilities in Early Modern Philosophy

Edited By Sebastian Bender, Dominik Perler Copyright 2024
386 Pages
by Routledge

386 Pages
by Routledge

386 Pages
by Routledge

This book explores different accounts of powers and abilities in early modern philosophy. It analyzes powers and abilities as a package, hopefully enabling us to better understand them both and to see similarities as well as dissimilarities. While some prominent early modern accounts of power have been studied in detail, this volume also covers lesser‑known thinkers and several early modern... Read more

Introduction Sebastian Bender and Dominik Perler

1. Suárez on Powers and Abilities as Inner Causes Dominik Perler

2. Real Tendencies: Descartes on Dispositions and Powers in the Material World Jean-Pascal Anfray

3. Occasionalism, Powers, and Human Freedom in French Cartesianism Tad M. Schmaltz

4. Sergeant versus Le Grand on Forms and Causal Power Han Thomas Adriaenssen

5. Move your Body! Cavendish on Self-Motion Colin Chamberlain

6. Hobbes on Powers, Accidents, and Motions Stewart Duncan

7. Gravity, Occult Qualities, and Newton’s Ontology of Powers Patrick J. Connolly

8. Spinoza on Powers and Abilities Martin Lin

9. Locke on the Right Use of Our Abilities Jennifer Marušić

10. Forces and Abilities in Leibniz Stephan Schmid

11. Du Châtelet on the Powers of Bodies and Minds Marcy P. Lascano

12. Creatures of Habit: Condillac on the Abilities of Animals Jeremy Dunham

13. Moral Competence as a Distinctively Human Ability: Rousseau and Herder Anik Waldow

14. Watts and Trotter Cockburn on the Power of Thinking Ruth Boeker

15. Mental Faculties and Powers and the Foundations of Hume’s Philosophy Karl Schafer

16. Reid on Powers and Abilities M. Folescu

17. Kant on Abilities, Human Freedom, and Complete Determination Sebastian Bender

Biography

Sebastian Bender is Junior Professor of Philosophy at Georg‑August‑Universität Göttingen. He specializes in early modern philosophy, with a focus on the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He is the author of Leibniz’ Metaphysik der Modalität (2016) and co‑editor of Causation and Cognition in Early Modern Philosophy (2020).

Dominik Perler is Professor of Philosophy at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Co‑Director of the Human Abilities Center. His research focuses on medieval and early modern philosophy. His books include Feelings Transformed. Philosophical Theories of the Emotions, 1270–1670 (author, 2018), The Faculties: A History (editor, 2015), and Causation and Cognition in Early Modern Philosophy (co‑editor, 2020).