"Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy" is a philosophical work by George Santayana, a Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Published in 1933, this book explores various themes and ideas in modern philosophy, offering Santayana's insightful reflections and critiques. In the book, Santayana delves into different philosophical currents and movements of the time, examining their implications and contributions to the broader landscape of philosophical thought. He discusses topics such as skepticism, idealism, materialism, and pragmatism, among others, providing his nuanced analysis and interpretation. Santayana's writing style is known for its clarity, elegance, and depth of thought. He combines rigorous philosophical analysis with literary flair, making his work accessible to both scholars and general readers interested in philosophy.

Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy by George Sentayana is about Sentayana's personal philosophical views on ethics, science, and morals. Sentayana writes lucidly and humorously about a wide range of topics. Excerpt: "A good portrait of Locke would require an elaborate background. His is not a figure to stand statuesquely in a void: the pose might not seem grand enough for bronze or marble. Rather he should be painted in the manner of the Dutch masters, in a sunny interior, scrupulously furnished with all the implements of domestic comfort and philosophic inquiry: the Holy Bible open majestically before him, and beside it that other revelation—the terrestrial globe."

This provocative reassessment of modern philosophy explores its nonrational dimensions and connection to ancient mysteries. Delving beneath the principal discourses of philosophyfrom Descartes through Kant, Bernard Freydberg plumbs the previously concealed dark forces that ignite the inner power of modern thought. He contends that reason itself issues from an implicit and unconscious suppression of the nonrational. Even the modern philosophical concerns of nature and limits are undergirded by a dark side that dwells in them and makes them possible. Freydberg traces these dark sources to the poetry of Hesiod, the fragments of Heraclitus and Parmenides, and the Platonic dialogues and claims that they rear their heads again in the work of Spinoza, Schelling, and Nietzsche. Freydberg does not set forth a critique of modern philosophy but explores its intrinsic continuity with its ancient roots.

Locke's linguistic turn -- The road to Locke -- Of angels and human beings -- The form of a language -- The import of propositions -- The value of a function -- From silence to assent -- The whimsy of language.

A Short History of Modern Philosophy is a lucid, challenging and up-to-date survey of the philosophers and philosophies from the founding father of modern philosophy, René Descartes, to the most important and famous philosopher of the twentieth century, Ludwig Wittgenstein. Roger Scruton has been widely praised for his success in making the history of modern philosophy cogent and intelligible to anyone wishing to understand this fascinating subject. In this new edition, he has responded to the explosion of interest in the history of philosophy by substantially rewriting the book, taking account of recent debates and scholarship.

What is the modern turn in philosophy? In other words, what are the features that make modern philosophy distinctively “modern” in contrast with the pre-modern philosophy from which it emerged – for example, medieval scholasticism, Renaissance philosophy, and ancient Greek and Roman thought? How did the modern turn in philosophy transpire? That is, what did specific philosophers contribute that shaped the distinctive character of modern philosophy? The twelve essays in this volume seek to address these questions, and in doing so they exemplify and contribute to a rich debate about the nature and value of modern philosophy. This volume approaches the modern turn not as an event that occurred all at once, but rather as a series of shifts in different areas of philosophy at different times. The essays are arranged broadly in chronological order of the topics they treat. Among the themes that recur most often in these essays are, first, that modern philosophy is characteristically preoccupied with questions about foundations and, second, that it ultimately prioritizes practice over theory. But the virtues of this text is in presenting a wide range or perspectives on modern philosophy – what constitutes it as modern, when it arose, and what its shortcomings may be.

Danilo Marcondes argues that, contrary to a traditional view maintaining that language is not given any central role in early modern philosophy, an “early linguistic turn” in the seventeenth century opened a place for the philosophy of language as part of the philosophical system then under construction. Skepticism and Language in Early Modern Philosophy: The Early Linguistic Turn also claims that the revival of ancient skepticism at the modern age contributed decisively towards this “linguistic turn” insofar as it attacked the “powers of the intellect” in representing reality and making knowledge possible. Marcondes also argues that the concept of language itself becomes crucial to this investigation since the various understandings that developed during this period led to the central role that would be given to the philosophy of language in contemporary philosophy.