Though best known as a philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a polymath with many facets to his genius. Besides providing the most detailed account of his life availale in English, George MacDonald Ross puts Leibniz's philosophical ideas into perspective by examining them in the light of his work as an alchemist, librarian, diplomat, mining engineer, and historian.
Rene Descartes had a remarkably short working life, yet his contribution to philosophy and physics have endured to this day. He is perhaps best known for his statement, "Cogito, ergo sum," the cornerstone of his metaphysics. Descartes did not intend the metaphysics to stand apart from his scientific work, which included important investigations into physics, mathematics, and optics. In this boo…
Henri Bergson was born the year that Darwin published On the Origin of Species. The significance of this and other works on the theory of evolution in the development of Bergson's philosophy became clear when he published Creative Evolution and established himself as one of Europe's most influential thinkers. Kolakowski shows how Bergson sought to reconcile Darwinian theory with the view that a…
"Being in the company with a gentleman who thought fit to maintain Dr. Berkeley's ingenious philosophy, that nothing exists but as perceived by some mind; when the gentleman was going away, Dr. Johnson said to him, 'Pray, Sir, don't leave us; for we may perhaps forget to think of you, and then you will cease to exist.'" Taken out of context, the famous doctrine here ridiculed by Johnson, and it…