Product details
- ISBN 9781032853079
- Weight: 740g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 12 Nov 2025
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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This book explores themes in the philosophy of mind as they emerge within the early modern Cartesian tradition. It brings together 13 contributions from international scholars to provide a fine‑grained account of how 17th‑century thinkers scrutinized and re‑interpreted Descartes’ doctrines about the nature and functions of the mind.
Although it is well known that many of the challenges that philosophers confront today were already discussed by the Cartesians, historical Cartesianism remains underexplored and warrants deeper, careful study. There is much to be learned about how the Cartesian tradition understood phenomena such as consciousness, intentionality, embodiment, and moral agency—and the puzzles they raise. The chapters are divided into three thematic sections. Part 1 focuses on fundamental features of cognition, such as the nature of ideas and intentionality, as they were debated by early interlocutors of Descartes. Part 2 analyzes how Cartesian philosophers conceived of the relation between sensation and material objects, including the human body. Part 3 investigates the moral and social dimensions of the Cartesian mind, such as love and virtue.
Cartesianism and Philosophy of Mind will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working on early modern philosophy and philosophy of mind.
Vili Lähteenmäki is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Oulu and a Docent at the University of Jyväskylä. He mainly works on topics in the philosophy of mind and self in early modern philosophy. He has been a visiting researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin, the University of Queensland, and Harvard University. He is the director of the Academy of Finland project Thick Subjects: A Reconsideration of Early Modern Views of the Self (2020–25). In his published work, he has discussed early modern philosophy of mind widely, with a particular interest in early modern theories of consciousness.
Oberto Marrama is a Marie Skłodowska‑Curie Fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and a Guest Research Fellow at the University of Oulu. His primary research area is early modern philosophy of mind. His publications have focused on the philosophies of Spinoza, Cavendish, Hobbes, and Descartes.
Jani Sinokki is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Turku. Sinokki works extensively in the philosophy of mind and language, with a focus on both historical and contemporary topics.
