Philosophy by the Book

Seventeenth Century Philosophy

Throughout the seventeenth century philosophy underwent enormous changes. At the beginning of the period the stamp of Aristotle was everywhere apparent, even amongst those who consciously distanced themselves from him such as Francis Bacon. By the close of the century it was Descartes, Locke and Newton who had to be contended with. The ramifications of Descartes' mechanical philosophy and theory of the mind can be traced through the Cambridge Platonists Henry More and Ralph Cudworth, through Locke and up to the mechanistic account of man in La Mettrie. In turn, Locke's new theory of knowledge and the understanding exerted enormous influence as seen in the works of Berkeley, Hume and the French philosophes of the eighteenth century. The achievement of Newton's dynamic physics sent ripples into every corner of the philosophical terrain. The Leibniz/Clarke correspondence is just one of the works here which illustrate this intersection between philosophy and the study of nature. Finally, the often fraught political struggles of the century provided the seedbed for significant contributions in political philosophy. The heated debates over the divine right of kings, religious toleration, the nature of political rights and the justification of colonial expansion issued in works like Filmer's Patriacha and Hobbes' Leviathan.