Abstract
Why a new volume on mechanism, life and mind in early modern thought, combining natural philosophy and more purely philosophical inquiries? Mechanism is the central focus here, as applied to the two key areas of reflections on life, and on the mind. We build on the active scholarship in recent decades on early modern mechanism, on the mind-body problem, and on the role of the life sciences in core issues in early modern philosophy, and hope that the diverse contributions in this volume build and articulate links, ‘conceptual transfers’ and interpollinations between these areas. Issues studied include emergence, fevers, irritation, natural perception, nutrition, plants, psychology, representations, vibrations and vitalism; figures studied include Baglivi, Cudworth, du Bois-Reymond, Evelyn, Glisson, Hartley, Helmholtz, Hering, Leibniz, Regius, Schegk, Shaftesbury, Spinoza and Wolff.
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Clericuzio, A., Pecere, P., Wolfe, C.T. (2022). Introduction: Mechanism, Life and Mind in Modern Natural Philosophy. In: Wolfe, C.T., Pecere, P., Clericuzio, A. (eds) Mechanism, Life and Mind in Modern Natural Philosophy. International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, vol 240. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07036-5_1
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