This is the first edition of an annual volume to present a selection of the best new work in the history of philosophy. The series focuses on the 17th and 18th centuries - the period that begins, very roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes papers on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. The core of the subject matter is, of course, philosophy and its history, but the volume's papers also reflect the fact that philosophy in this period was much broader in scope than it is now taken to be, and included a great deal of what currently belongs to the natural sciences: so the notion of "philosophy" is interpreted rather broadly. Furthermore, philosophy in the period was closely connected with other disciplines, such as theology, and with larger questions of social, political, and religious history. Again, while maintaining a focus on philosophy, the volumes also include articles that examine the larger intellectual, social and political context of early modern philosophy.
