Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy Volume IV

Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual volume presenting the best new work in the history of the discipline. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth 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 volumes' papers reflect the fact that philosophy in this period was much broader in scope that 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.

The articles in OSEMP will be of importance to specialists within the discipline, but the editors also intend that they should appeal to a larger audience of philosophers, intellectual historians, and others who are interested in the development of modern thought.