Causation Debate in Modern Philosophy, 1637-1739

Kenneth Clatterbaugh is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washington. He has contributed to many journals, including The Monist, The Philosophical Review and History of Philosophy Quarterly.

• Chapter 1 The Debate; Chapter 2 Descartes: The Metaphysics of Causation; Chapter 3 Descartes: The Epistemology of Causation; Chapter 4 Classical Mechanism: Hobbes and Gassendi; Chapter 5 The Temptation of Occasionalism: Le Grand and Malebranche; Chapter 6 Causes and Sufficient Reason: Spinoza and Leibniz; Chapter 7 The Limits of Classical Mechanism: Boyle, Rohault, and Newton; Chapter 8 The Attempted Alignment of Philosophy and Physics: Locke, Berkeley, and Hume; Chapter 9 Summation and Final Ironies;

"The book is a most valuable companion to primary texts. Clatterbaugh writes transparently and with impressive economy. Because he gets down to business and has a lot to say about each of the figures as well as the grander picture, there will be many useful points of discussion arising from the text. The author has done a genuine service to both students and researchers." -- John M. Nicholas, The University of Western Ontario"...insigntful, provocative, and worthy of recommendation." -- Teaching Philosophy"...an excellent introduction to the debate in early modern philosophy over the metaphysics and epistemology of causation, particularly on the nature of the interactions between body, mind, and God." -- Philosophyin Review