CONTENTS Knowledge 117 Montaigne’s Scepticism 117 Descartes’ Response 119 Cartesian Consciousness 121 The Empiricism of Hobbes 127 Locke’s Ideas 131 Spinoza on Degrees of Knowledge 137 The Epistemology of Leibniz 142 Berkeley on Qualities and Ideas 146 Hume on Ideas and Impressions 151 Kant’s Synthetic a priori 156 Realism vs Idealism 160 Idealist Epistemology 163 Physics 165 Natural Philosophy 165 Cartesian Physics 169 The Atomism of Gassendi 172 Newton 173 The Labyrinth of the Continuum Kant’s Antinomies 177 174 Metaphysics 181 The Metaphysics of Suarez 181 Descartes on Eternal Truths 184 Three Notions of Substance 187 Single Necessary Substance 190 Making Room for Contingency 193 Berkeley’s Idealism 199 Hume on Causation 204 The Response of Kant 207 Mind and Soul 212 Descartes on Mind 212 Dualism and its Discontents 216 Determinism, Freedom, and Compatibilism 219 Locke on Personal Identity 223 The Soul as the Idea of the Body in Spinoza 227 viii