Pierre Gassendi and the Birth of Early Modern Philosophy

Offered here is the first comprehensive treatment in English of the philosophical system of the seventeenth-century philosopher Pierre Gassendi. Gassendi’s importance is widely recognized and is essential for understanding early modern philosophers and scientists such as Locke, Leibniz and Newton. Offering a systematic overview of his contributions, LoLordo situates Gassendi’s views within the context of sixteenth and early seventeenth century natural philosophy as represented by a variety of intellectual traditions, including scholastic Aristotelianism, Renaissance Neo-Platonism, and the emerging mechanical philosophy. LoLordo’s work will be essential reading for historians of early modern philosophy and science.

• One of very few works on a figure now recognized as crucial to the development of early-modern philosophy and science • Offers a comprehensive overview of Gassendi’s philosophical system • Deals with connections between philosophy, science, and religion

Introduction; 1. Gassendi’s life and times; 2. Gassendi’s philosophical opponents; 3. Skepticism, perception and the truth of the appearances; 4. Cognition, knowledge and the theory of signs; 5. Space and time; 6. Atoms and causes; 7. Bodies and motion; 8. Generation, life and the corporeal soul; 9. The metaphysics of body; 10. Faith, reason and the immaterial soul.