Mechanism, Life and Mind in Modern Natural Philosophy

This volume emphasizes the diversity and fruitfulness of early modern mechanism as a program, as a concept, as a model. Mechanistic study of the living body but also of the mind and mental processes are examined in careful historical focus, dealing with figures ranging from the first—rank (Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Cudworth, Gassendi, Locke, Leibniz, Kant) to less well—known individuals (Scaliger, Martini) or prominent natural philosophers who have been neglected in recent years (Willis, S...