Thomas Lennon – författare

Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) has been described by Richard Popkin as the key intellectual figure at the outset of the eighteenth century. Examinations of libraries from the period show him to have been by far the most successful author of the century, and his Historical and Critical Dictionary is in fact the philosophy best-seller of all time. The concepts, distinctions, and arguments found in his work were so widely adopted by later authors that Bayle came to be known as the 'Arsenal of the Enlightenment'. Despite his universally acknowledged importance, however, there has been from his own time to the present much disagreement about how Bayle is to be interpreted.The title of this work is deliberately ambiguous, reflecting the multiple levels on which its argument is conducted. One aim is to indicate how a reading of Bayle might be made possible – how the initial impenetrability of his writings and their world might be overcome. On another level, the book offers an interpretation of Bayle's writings. Finally, it is a record of the author's own thoughts upon reading Bayle – what he finds himself thinking about as he looks at Bayle and his world.This work is a critical but sympathetic treatment of this neglected thinker. It will engage anyone interested in the history of modern philosophy, the history of ideas, literary criticism, and the history of seventeenth-century French culture.

Many kinds of Cartesian views are treated by these papers: the views that Descartes held, views from our perspective on those views, views on Descartes held by his early critics and followers, and views that are Cartesian in outlook (not for nothing is Descartes still regarded as the father of modern philosophy.) These overlapping views provide the unity of this volume, and reflect the unity of Richard A.Watson’s philosophical work. Not least among Watson’s contributions has been his depiction of Cartesianism as a response to a set of problems within Descartes’s philosophy. The later Cartesians were not slavish followers of Descartes. The contributors to this volume might be viewed as standing to Watson as the Cartesians did to Descartes.Contributors include: Jean-Robert Armogathe, Leslie Armour, Alan Gabbey, Daniel Garber, William H. Gass, Alan Hausman, David Hausman, Thomas M. Lennon, José R. Maia Neto, Steven Nadler, Richard H. Popkin, Han van Ruler, Theo Verbeek, Fred Wilson, and Alison Wylie.