The anthology that we use for this course—Early
Modern Philosophy: An Anthology (ed. by Lisa Shapiro and Marcy Lascano, Broadview Press, 2022)—is a
revolutionary anthology that opens up to students an extraordinary range of
questions, voices, and perspectives on modern European philosophy. Still, the text is limited in the range of
texts that it can make available. On
this website, I have begun to collect other readings relevant to the themes in
the Shapiro and Lascano volume, including expanded selections from many of the
authors they include. I am also including
some links below to amazing new work by Julia Jorabi on the topic of Slavery. (These volumes provide sufficient primary
sources for building a unit on Slavery.
If your group wants to talk about Slavery, talk to me about how best to
narrow down the selections to make them manageable for you to prepare.) I am also working on creating a list of texts
for a new theme on Colonialism (see below).
Note that the
Textbook itself has online resources, with additional readings by Hobbes,
Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Bayle, Shaftesbury, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Those are marked in the table of contents as “Website”
and they are available at https://sites.broadviewpress.com/earlymodernphil/
and the password should be in the front cover of your book (if you can’t find
it, email me).
In addition
to the links below, I encourage you to take a look at the abundance of
resources available on Project Vox,
which has information on several important early modern women philosophers, and
to peruse the Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, including entries such as Early
Modern Rationalism (especially §3) or Primary and
Secondary Qualities in Early Modern Philosophy or 17th
and 18th Century Theories of the Emotions.
The
philosophers below are listed in chronological order by their birth, in accordance
with the convention established in the Shapiro and Lascano volume:
Marie de Gournay (1565-1645) “The
Ladies Complaint” [See too
additional readings in Desmond Clarke (2014) The
Equality of the Sexes: Three Feminist Texts.] This text is especially
relevant to the following themes: (3) Equality and Difference; (4) Feminism; (10)
Self-Knowledge; (22) Epistemology (especially epistemic injustice).
Lucrezia Marinella (1571–1653) The
Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Vices and Defects of Men, selection. [The entire book, which I recommend, is
available here.]
This text is especially relevant to the
following themes: (3) Equality and Difference; (4) Feminism; (9) Love; (11)
Human Nature.
Anne Conway (1631-1679) Principles
of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy (complete). This text is already included in the Shapiro
and Lascano anthropology and listed under the themes for which it is
appropriate. The longer selection here
provides more detail for groups who might be interested in assigning more Conway.
Sor Juana
Ines de la Cruz (1648-1695) Primero
Sueño (Campion translation). This text is especially relevant to the following themes: (1) Philosophical
Methodology; (11) Human Nature; (17) Metaphysics; (19) Mind-Body Union and
Interaction; (21) Natural Philosophy; (22) Epistemology; (23) Philosophy of Mind;
(24) Knowledge from Experience; (25) Perception
and Imagination
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1648-1695), Selected
Poems: TBDxxxasdfxxx Poem 99; 104??xxx (Sergio’s love poem…104?), Sonnets 151
(more epistemic), 165, 168
Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673) The
Convent of Pleasure. This text
is especially relevant to the following themes: (3) Equality and Difference; (4)
Feminism; (5) Education; (6) Habituation and Custom; (7) Happiness; (9) Love; (15)
Free Will…;
Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673) The
Blazing World. Shapiro and
Lascano already include selections from Cavendish’s Observations upon
Experimental Philosophy (a text originally published together with The
Blazing World), and The Blazing World is an excellent example of Cavendish
dealing with similar themes through a science fiction novel (rather than a series
of letters). Moreover, it discusses a wide
range of other themes. Hence, it’s
relevant to themes such as (11) Human Nature; (20) Causation; (21) Natural
Philosophy; (22) Epistemology; (24) Knowledge from Experience; and (25) Perception
and Imagination. Honestly, though, I
think it’s relevant to all the themes in our textbook, and I would be delighted
to see it used for any of those themes.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) Theory
of Moral Sentiments. This text is especially relevant to the following
themes: (13) Moral Philosophy (see especially the First Part, Sections 1-2);
(14) Virtue and Vice (see especially Part Six); and (6) Habituation and Custom
(see especially Part Five).
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) Observations
on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime. This text is especially relevant to the
following themes: (3) Equality and Difference (re: gender, cf. Third Section
(pp. 35-50), re: race: cf. Fourth Section (pp. 50-end); (4) Feminism
(especially Third Section); (8) Passions; (11) Human Nature; (13/14) Moral Philosophy/Virtue and
Vice (especially Second Section).
Ottobah Cugoano (1757-1791) Thoughts and
Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of Slavery. [See too this SEP article on Cugoano and
also the many additional slavery-related readings in Jorati 2025, 2026.] This text is especially relevant to the
following themes: (3) Equality and Difference; (11) Human Nature; (13) Moral
Philosophy; (14) Virtue and Vice; (15) Free Will; (26) Slavery.
Mary Wolstonecraft (1759-1797) Vindication
of the Rights of Women. This
text is especially relevant to the following themes: (3) Equality and
Difference; (4) Feminism; (13) Moral Philosophy; (14) Virtue and Vice; (15)
Free Will
Mary Wolstonecraft (1759-1797) Vindication
of the Rights of Men. This text
is especially relevant to the following themes: (3) Equality and Difference; (13)
Moral Philosophy; (14) Virtue and Vice; (15) Free Will
Mary Shepherd (1777-1847) An Essay
upon the Relation of Cause and Effect, focus on the Preface and Chapter
Two. This text is especially relevant to the theme of (20) Causation, but also
relates to (1) Philosophical Methodology; (2) Skepticism; (17) Metaphysics; (21)
Natural Philosophy; (24) Knowledge from Experience.
Mary Shepherd (1777-1847) Essays
on the Perception of an External Universe. This text is especially
relevant to the theme of (3) Skepticism and all themes for which Berkeley’s Principles
is mentioned.