Divine Will and the Mechanical Philosophy
Title | Divine Will and the Mechanical Philosophy PDF eBook |
Author | Margaret J. Osler |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 300 |
Release | 1994-06-24 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0521461049 |
This book is about the influence of theological presuppositions on two versions of the mechanical philosophy in the seventeenth century.
Richard Baxter and the Mechanical Philosophers
Title | Richard Baxter and the Mechanical Philosophers PDF eBook |
Author | David S. Sytsma |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 353 |
Release | 2017 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0190274875 |
Richard Baxter, one of the 17th century's most famous Puritans, is known as an author of devotional literature. But he was also skilled in medieval philosophy. In this work, David Sytsma draws on largely unexamined works to present a chronogolical and thematic account of Baxter's relation to the people and concepts involved in the rise of mechanical philosophy in late-17th-century England
Divine Will and Human Choice
Title | Divine Will and Human Choice PDF eBook |
Author | Richard A. Muller |
Publisher | Baker Academic |
Pages | 524 |
Release | 2017-05-02 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1493406701 |
This fresh study from an internationally respected scholar of the Reformation and post-Reformation eras shows how the Reformers and their successors analyzed and reconciled the concepts of divine sovereignty and human freedom. Richard Muller argues that traditional Reformed theology supported a robust theory of an omnipotent divine will and human free choice and drew on a tradition of Western theological and philosophical discussion. The book provides historical perspective on a topic of current interest and debate and offers a corrective to recent discussions.
Religion, Reason and Nature in Early Modern Europe
Title | Religion, Reason and Nature in Early Modern Europe PDF eBook |
Author | R. Crocker |
Publisher | Springer Science & Business Media |
Pages | 264 |
Release | 2013-03-14 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9401597774 |
From a variety of perspectives, the essays presented here explore the profound interdependence of natural philosophy and rational religion in the `long seventeenth century' that begins with the burning of Bruno in 1600 and ends with the Enlightenment in the early Eighteenth century. From the writings of Grotius on natural law and natural religion, and the speculative, libertin novels of Cyrano de Bergerac, to the better-known works of Descartes, Malebranche, Cudworth, Leibniz, Boyle, Spinoza, Newton, and Locke, an increasing emphasis was placed on the rational relationship between religious doctrine, natural law, and a personal divine providence. While evidence for this intrinsic relationship was to be located in different places - in the ideas already present in the mind, in the observations and experiments of the natural philosophers, and even in the history, present experience, and prophesied future of mankind - the result enabled and shaped the broader intellectual and scientific discourses of the Enlightenment.
The Cog in the Wheel
Title | The Cog in the Wheel PDF eBook |
Author | Patrice Leiteritz |
Publisher | Books on Demand |
Pages | 142 |
Release | 2020-08-25 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9783750451919 |
The mechanical philosophy originates in the 18th century and is based on ideas that were already advocated by ancient philosophers. Instead of explaining the world with the help of gods and founding a whole value system based on the teachings of a religion, the followers of mechanical philosophy sought their answers in nature and its laws. For them, the universe was a gigantic and complex mechanism governed by the principle of cause and effect. They even extended this view onto human beings, seeing them as another product of nature and not as a divine creation. The free will, of whose existence we are all convinced, is questioned as well. What follows from this world view and what does it mean for us, for our society and our understanding of morality, guilt, good and evil? The book The Cog in The Wheel is conceived as a compact work that is intended to provide the reader with the most comprehensive insight possible into the fundamentals and conclusions of mechanical philosophy. The structure of the book is pragmatic and starts with an explanation of the terms materialism, determinism and the principle of causality. In the next chapter the far-reaching consequences of these propositions are presented and explained. Here, numerous topics are taken up which, under the premise of mechanical philosophy, must be reassessed. These include, for example, the concept of nature, the difference between animate and inanimate matter, the highest good for mankind, and considerations regarding the meaning of life. The book contains examples, usually following theoretical explanations, which present the preceding information in a comprehensible way. This should also give those readers an introduction to the subject who have never dealt with it before. The last chapter is a summary and serves the practical application of theoretical knowledge. This handbook is not primarily intended as a guide to life but is primarily designed to introduce the interested reader to a particular school of philosophy, from its foundations to its application.
Perfect Will Theology
Title | Perfect Will Theology PDF eBook |
Author | J. Martin Bac |
Publisher | BRILL |
Pages | 580 |
Release | 2010 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 900418290X |
This book revisits four early-modern debates of Reformed theology concerning the will of God. Reformed scholasticism advocated a particular relationship between divine knowledge, will, and power, which was altered by Jesuits, Remonstrants, Descartes, and Spinoza. In all these debates modal categories like contingency and necessity play a prominent part. Therefore, these positions are evaluated with the help of modern modal logic including possible world semantics. The final part of this study presents a systematic defense of the Reformed position, which has been charged of theological determinism and of making God the author of sin. In modern terms, therefore, the relation of divine and human freedom and the problem of evil are discussed.
Gassendi's Ethics
Title | Gassendi's Ethics PDF eBook |
Author | Lisa T. Sarasohn |
Publisher | Cornell University Press |
Pages | 252 |
Release | 2018-10-18 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 1501718436 |
This is the first book to explore the ethical thought of Pierre Gassendi, the seventeenth-century French priest who rehabilitated Epicurean philosophy in the Western tradition. Lisa T. Sarasohn's discussion of the relationship between Gassendi's philosophy of nature and his ethics discloses the underlying unity of his philosophy and elucidates this critical figure in the intellectual revolution.Sarasohn demonstrates that Gassendi's ethics was an important part of his attempt to Christianize Epicureanism. She shows how Gassendi integrated ideas of human freedom into a neo-Epicurean ethic where pleasure is the highest good, yet maintained a consistent belief in Christian providence. These views challenged what were then the new systems of philosophy, Hobbesian materialism and Cartesian rationalism. Sarasohn places Gassendi in his historical and intellectual context, considering him in relation to contemporary philosophers and within the patronage system that conditioned his own freedom. She investigates the links between his ethical thought and philosophy of science and makes sense of his attacks on astrology. Finally, her work clarifies Pierre Gassendi's considerable influence on seventeenth-century ethical and political philosophy, particularly on the work of John Locke—and thus on the whole English liberal tradition in political philosophy.