The Early Modern Subject: Self-Consciousness and Personal Identity from Descartes to Hume

Acknowledgements; INTRODUCTION: Aims and Issues; PART I: THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY BACKGROUND; 1 The 'Ontological' View of the Self: Scholastic and Cartesian Conceptions; 2 Metaphysical Alternatives. Conceptions of Identity, Morality, and the Afterlife; PART II: LOCKE'S SUBJECTIVIST REVOLUTION; 3 Locke on Identity, Consciousness, and Self-Consciousness; 4 Locke on Personal Identity: Consciousness, Memory, and Self-Concern; PART III: PROBLEMS WITH LOCKE. CRITIQUE AND DEFENCE; 5 The Notion of a Person and the Role of Consciousness and Memory; 6 The Charge of Circularity and the Argument from the Transitivity of Identity; PART IV: SUBJECTIVITY AND IMMATERIALIST METAPHYSICS OF THE MIND; 7 The Soul, Human and Universal; 8 Relating to the Soul and Pure Thought, Original Sin and the Afterlife; PART V: SUSBSTANCE, APPERCEPTION AND IDENTITY: LEIBNIZ, WOLFF, AND BEYOND; 9 Individuation and Identity, Apperception and Consciousness in Leibniz and Wolff; 10 Beyond Leibniz and Wo

Udo Thiel, University of Graz, Austria

an indispensible guide for specialists in early modern philosophy and the history of subjectivity. S. Young, CHOICE clearly and engagingly written. The book is easily accessible to non-specialists and has a lot to offer to specialists, in particular on account of its extensive coverage of thinkers other than the usual suspects ... there is much to learn from this rich and informative book Marleen Rozemond, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Essential reading for any scholar interested in self-consciousness and personal identity. Angela Coventry, Mind The thoroughness of Thiel's scholarship is impressive, to say the least ... an extraordinary scholarly achievement ... set[s] a new standard that will profoundly affect subsequent scholarly attempts to synoptically understand the way in which important theoretical issues in general, and not just the ones he considered, got discussed by theorists during the modern period. Raymond Martin, Internationale Zeitschrift fur Analytische Philosophie Thiel's book is clearly written and accessible to more than just a circle of specialists. Its main virtue is the systematized presentation of an amazing range of authors ... This book is the first pick for everyone who wants to gain insight into the abundance of early modern discussions of these topics. Christian Barth, Philosophy in Review