History of Early Modern Philosophy Reading List

Medieval - Renaissance Period (500-1600 ce)

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite 5th c. ce Syria/Unknown

• Chronicle (Known Also as the Chronicle of Zuqnin). Part III
• (anthology) Paul Rorem Pseudo-Dionysius: A Commentary on the Texts and an Introduction to Their Influence

Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus 477-524 ce Italy (Rome)

• Consolation of Philosophy. 525

Philoponus, John 490-570 ce Egypt (Byzantine)

• On Aristotle physics 1.4-9
• On Aristotle Physics 4.1-5
• On Aristotle Physics 4.10-14
• On Aristotle posterior analytics 1.1-8
• On Aristotle Posterior Analytics 1.9-18
• On Aristotle Posterior Analytics 1.19-34
• On Aristotle “On Coming to be and Perishing 2.5-11”
• against Aristotle on the eternity of the world
• Against Proclus on the Eternity of the World 1-5
• Against Proclus On the Eternity of the World 6-8
• Against Proclus On the Eternity of the World 9-11
• On Aristotle on the Soul 1.1-2
• On Aristotle on the soul 3.9-13. with Stephanus on Aristotle on interpretation

Eriugena, John Scotus 815-877 ce Ireland

• Periphyseon, On the Division of Nature. 860-867

Al-Kindi 801-873 ce Iraq

Peter Pormann; Syed Nomanul Haq; Peter Adamson, eds. The Philosophical Works of Al-Kindi

Al-Farabi 872-950 ce Afghanistan

• Short Commentary on Aristotle’s Prior Analytics
• Commentary and Short Treatise on Aristotle’s De Interpretatione

Al-Haytham, Ibn (Alhazen) 965-1040 ce Iraq/Egypt

• On Direct Vision, books I-III
• on image formation and distortion in mirrors
• on the principles of reflection

Avicenna 980-1037 ce Iran

• The Book of Healing 1014-1020
• Essay on the Secret of Destiny
• The Book of Scientific Knowledge
• The Book of Salvation

Gabirol, Solomon ibn 1021-1070 ce Spain

• The improvement of the moral qualities

Al-Ghazali 1058-1111 ce Persia

• The Incoherence of the Philosophers
• Moderation in Belief
• Abstinence In Islam

Averroes, Ibn Rushd 1126-1198 ce Spain

• Tahafut al Tahafut, The Incoherence of the Incoherence vols. I-II 1198
• The ‘‘Decisive Treatise’’ 1198
• The Attitude of Islam Towards Science and Philosophy
• De substantia orbis
• on Plato’s Republic
• Middle Commentaries on Aristotle’s “Categories” and “De Interpretatione”
• Metaphysics
• On Aristotle’s ‘‘Metaphysics’’, ‘‘Epitome’’ (Scientia Graeco-Arabica)
• Three Short Commentaries on Aristotle’s ‘‘Topics’’, ‘‘Rhetoric’’, and “Poetics’’
• Long Commentary on the de Anima of Aristotle

Maimonides 1135-1204 ce Spain/Egypt

• The Guide of the Perplexed
• The Preservation of Youth : Essays once Health

Aquinas, Thomas 1225-1274 ce Italy

• On Being and Essence 1252-1256
• Disputed Questions on Truth 1256-1259
• Contra Errores Graecorum 1263
• Disputed Questions on the Power of God 1259-1268
• Commentary on Aristotle’s De anima 1268
• On the Unity of the Intellect against the Averroists 1270
• Commentary on the Gospel of John 1269-1272
• Commentary on Aristotle’s On the Heavens and Earth 1272-1273
• Summa Theologica. 1265-1274

Scotus, Duns 1266-1308 ce England

• A Treatise on God as First Principle
• God and Creatures. The Quodlibetal Questions
• The Will and Morality
• Philosophical Writings
• Contingency and Freedom
• Questions on the Metaphysics of Aristotle by John Duns Scotus - 1298
• Questions on Aristotle’s Categories
• Time and Existence: The Questions on Aristotle’s “De interpretatione”

William of Ockham 1287-1347 ce England

• Philosophical Writings - 1319-1321
• Predestination, God’s Foreknowledge, and Future Contingents - 1322
• Theory of Terms Summa Logicae - 1323
• Theory of Propositions Summa Logicae - 1323
• Demonstration and Scientific Knowledge Summa Logicae 1323

Nicholas of Cusa 1401-1464 ce Germany

• On learned ignorance 1440

Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni 1463-1494 ce Italy

• Oration on the Dignity of Man 1486
• De animae immortalitate 1541
• On Being and the One 1557

Erasmus, Desiderius 1466-1536 ce Netherlands

• In Praise of Folly. 1511

More, Thomas 1478-1535 ce England

• Utopia. 1516

Machiavelli, Niccolò 1469-1527 ce Italy

• The Prince 1532
• The Discourses on Livy 1517(1531)
• The Art of War 1520

Montaigne, Michel de 1533-1592 ce France

• Essays 1580

Early Modern Period (c. 1600-1820 ce)

Bacon, Francis 1561-1626 ce England

• Essays - 1597,1612,1625
• Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human - 1605
• The New Organon (Novum Organum) - 1620
• New Atlantis - 1627

Kepler, Johannes 1571-1630 ce Germany - astronomy

• New Astronomy 1609
• The Harmony of the World 1619
• Optics: Paralipomena to Witelo & Optical Part of Astronomy

Galilei, Galileo 1564-1642 ce Italy

• Discourse on the Tides 1616
• The Assayer 1623
• Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems 1632
• Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences 1638

Grotius, Hugo 1583-1645 ce Netherlands

• The Freedom of the Seas 1609
• Rights of War and Peace. Books 1-3
• Commentary On The Law Of Prize And Booty

Edward Herbert of Cherbury 1582-1642 ce England

• De Veritate 1624

Descartes, René 1596-1650 ce France

• The World, The Man 1629-1633(1662,1666)
• Rules for the Direction of the Mind - 1628
• La Géométrie - 1637
• Discourse on the Method - 1637
• Meditations on First Philosophy - 1641
• Principles of Philosophy - 1644
• Description of the Human Body 1647
• Passions of the Soul - 1649

Elisabeth of the Palatinate (of Bohemia) 1618-1680 ce Germany

• Correspondence with Descartes 1643-1644

Gracián, Baltasar 1601-1658 ce Spain

• The Hero 1637 - machiavelli criticism
• The Politician King Ferdinand the Catholic 1640
• Arte de ingenio 1642 - literature, aesthetics
• The Complete Gentleman 1646
• The Art of Worldly Wisdom 1647
• El Criticón 1651-1657(1681)

Hobbes, Thomas 1588-1679 ce England

• De Cive - 1642(1647)
• De Corpore - 1645(1655)
• Humane Nature, or, The Fundamental Elements of Policy - 1650
• Leviathan - 1651
• De Homine - 1658

Arnauld, Antoine 1612-1694 ce France

• General and Rational Grammar: The Port-Royal Grammar 1660
• Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole. Logic or the Art of Thinking. 1665-1668
• La logique, ou, L’art de penser — Logique de Port-Royal
• Leibniz correspondence. 1686-1687

Cavendish, Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1623-1673 ce England

• Observations upon Experimental Philosophy 1666
• Bell in Campo and the Sociable Companions 1662-1668

Spinoza, Baruch 1632-1677 ce Netherlands

• On the Improvement of the Understanding 1662(1677)
• The Principles of René Descartes’ Philosophy, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order - 1663
• Treatise on Theology and Politics - 1670
• Ethics Demonstrated in Geometrical Order 1677

de La Forge, Louis 1632–1666 ce France

• Treatise on the Human Mind 1664

Locke, John 1632-1704 ce England/exile

• Questions Concerning Law of Nature 1664
• Second Treatise of Government 1689
• Essay Concerning Human Understanding - 1689

Pascal, Blaise 1623-1662 ce France

• Pensées 1670

Boyle, Robert 1627-1691 ce Ireland

• The Origin of Forms and Qualities, Part 1 1665
• The Grounds for and Excellence of the Mechanical Philosophy 1674

Newton, Isaac 1642-1727 ce England

• Descartes, Space and Body 1666
• A New Theory of Light and Colours 1671
• Method of Fluxions 1671-1736 The principia: mathematical principles of natural philosophy 1687-1726. (the authoritative translation. University of California Press. 2016)
• On the motion of bodies in an orbit 1684
• Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica 1687
• Opticks 1704

Malebranche, Nicolas 1638-1715 ce France

• The Search after Truth: With Elucidations of The Search after Truth 1675
• Treatise on Nature and Grace 1680
• Treatise on Ethics 1684

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm ce 1646-1716 ce Germany

• Freedom and Possibility 1680
• Meditations on Knowledge, Truth, and Ideas 1684
• Contingency 1686
• First Truths 1686
• Discourse on Metaphysics 1686
• Arnauld correspondence 1686
• A New System 1695
• The Ultimate Origin on Things 1697
• New Essays on Human Understanding 1704
• Monadology 1714

Conway, Anne 1631-1679 ce England

Anne Conway: The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy. Cambridge Univetrsity Press. 1690 Anne Conway: A Woman Philosopher

Cockburn, Catharine Trotter 1679-1749 ce England

Catharine Trotter Cockburn: Philosophical Writings. Broadview Press

• Catharine Trotter Cockburn. Commentary on Locke 1702, Morality

Wolff, Christian 1679-1754 ce Germany

• Preliminary discourse on philosophy in general
• The Law of Nations Treated According to the Scientific Method

Berkeley, George 1685-1753 ce Ireland

• Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision
• A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge 1710
• Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous 1713

Buffier, Claude 1661-1737 ce France

• Traité des premières vérités (Paris: 1724)

Butler, Joseph 1692-1752 ce England

• Exchange of Letters with Samuel Clarke 1713-1714
• Preface and Five Sermons from Fifteen Sermons 1726

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) 1694-1778 ce France

• The Worldling. 1736
• Elements of the Philosophy of Newton. 1738
• Treatise on Tolerance 1763
• Idées républicaines. 1765
• Questions/Letters on miracles. 1765

Hutcheson, Francis 1694-1746 ce Scotland

• Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue - 1725
• A System of Moral Philosophy 2 vols. 1755

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 1712-1788 ce France

• The Social Contract 1762

Smith, Adam 1723-1790 ce Scotland

• The Theory of Moral Sentiments 1759
• An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations 1776

Reid, Thomas 1710-1796 ce Scotland

• An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense 1764
• Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man. (Facsimile) 1785
• Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind 1788

Beattie, James 1735-1803 ce Scotland

• Essay on the Nature and Immutability of the Truth 1770

Burke, Edmund 1729-1797 ce Ireland

• Reflections on the Revolution in France 1790

Bentham, Jeremy 1748–1832 ce England

• Panopticon
• Utilitarianism and Other Essays
• An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
• Of Laws in General 1780
• Tracts on Poor Laws and Pauper Management
• The Book of Fallacies: From Unfinished Papers of Jeremy Bentham

Godwin, William 1756-1836 ce England

• Enquiry Concerning Political Justice 1793 - anarchism, utilitarianism

Marechal (Maréchal), Sylvain 1750-1803 ce France

• The Festival of Reason 1793
• Preliminary discourse, or Answer to the question: What is an atheist? - 1799

Wollstonecraft, Mary 1759-1797 ce England

• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 1792
• Frankenstein 1823

Paley, William 1743-1805 ce England

• Natural Theology 1802
• The principles of moral and political philosophy 1832

Blake, William 1757-1827 ce England

• An Island in the Moon 1784
• There is No Natural Religion 1788
• All Religions are One 1788
• Songs of Innocence and of Experience 1789
• The Book of Thel 1789
• Tiriel 1789
• The French Revolution 1791
• The Marriage of Heaven and Hell 1790-1793
• Visions of the Daughters of Albion 1793
• Continental Prophecies 1793-1795
• The Book of Urizen 1794
• The Book of Los 1795
• The Book of Ahania 1795
• Vala, or The Four Zoas 1797-1807
• Milton: A Poem in Two Books 1804-1810
• Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion 1804-1820

Critical Philosophy & German Idealism Period (c. 1740-1840 ce)

Hume, David 1711-1776 ce Scotland

• A Treatise of Human Nature 1740
• An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 1748
• An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals 1751
• Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion 1750-1779

Herder, Johann Gottfried 1744-1803 ce Germany

• Another Philosophy of History 1774

Kant, Immanuel 1724-1804 ce Germany

• The Critique of Pure Reason 1781-1787

• Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysic - 1783

• Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals - 1785

• Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science 1786

• What Does It Mean to Orient Oneself in Thinking? (“Was heißt: sich im Denken orientieren?”) 1786

• Critique of Practical Reason - 1788 (ethics)

• Critique of Judgment - 1790 (aesthetics)

• Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone (“Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft”) 1793

• Toward Perpetual Peace 1795

• Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (“Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht”) 1798

• Brief Outline of Certain Meditations on Fire (master’s thesis under Johann Gottfried Teske) 1755

• The Use in Natural Philosophy of Metaphysics Combined with Geometry, Part I: Physical Monadology (second thesis to obtain associate professorship) 1756

• The False Subtlety of the Four Syllogistic Figures 1762

• The Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God 1763

• Attempt to Introduce the Concept of Negative Magnitudes into Philosophy 1763

• On the Ultimate Ground of the Differentiation of Regions in Space 1768

• Dissertation on the Form and Principles of the Sensible and the Intelligible World (doctoral thesis) 1770

• Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science 1786

• Conjectural Beginning of Human History 1786

• Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch 1795

• Logic 1800

Jacobi, Carl Gustav Jacob 1743-1819 ce Germany

• Concerning the Doctrine of Spinoza 1785
• David Hume on Faith, “Appendix on Transcendental Idealism” 1787
• Open Letter to Fichte 1799

Reinhold, Karl Leonhard 1757-1823 ce Austria

• Letters on the Kantian Philosophy 1786-1787

Maimon, Salomon 1753-1800 ce Lithuania

• Essay on Transcendental Philosophy 1790

Schulze, Gottlob Ernst 1761-1833 ce Germany

• Aenesidemus 1792

Schiller, Friedrich 1759-1805 ce Germany

• Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man 1794

Fichte, Johann Gottlieb 1762–1814 ce Germany

• Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation 1792
• Review of Schulze, Aenesidemus 1794
• The Science of Knowledge, Foundations of the Entire Science of Knowledge 1794
• Introductions to the Wissenschaftslehre and Other Writings. Trans. and ed. Daniel Breazeale. Indianapolis, and Cambridge: Hackett - Contains mostly writings from the late Jena period, 1797–1799.
• Foundations of Natural Right 1797
• The Vocation of Man, 1800
• Outline of the Doctrine of Knowledge 1810

Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von 1775-1854 ce Germany

• Of the I as the Principle of Philosophy 1795
• Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature 1797
• System of Transcendental Idealism 1800
• Philosophical Inquiries into the Essence of Human Freedom 1809
• Ages of the World 1811
• Grounding of Positive Philosophy
• Philosophy of Mythology 1842

Holderlin (Hölderlin), Johann Christian Friedrich 1770-1843 ce Germany

• Judgment and Being 1795
• On the Operations of the Poetic Spirit

Unknown

• The Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism 1796

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich 1770-1831 ce Germany

• The Difference Between Fichte’s and Schelling’s System of Philosophy 1801
• The Phenomenology of Spirit 1807, trans. A.V. Miller, Oxford University Press
• Science of Logic - 1812-1816
• Encyclopedia Logic 1817
• Philosophy of Right 1820

Schleiermacher, Friedrich 1768-1834 ce Germany

• The Christian Faith 1830
• Introductions To The Dialogues Of Plato. 1836
• Lectures on Philosophical Ethics
• Hermeneutics and Criticism: And Other Writings 1838
• Speeches on Religion

Strauss, David 1808-1874 ce Germany

• The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined 1835

Feuerbach, Ludwig 1804-1872 ce Germany

• The Essence of Christianity 1841
• Principles of the Philosophy of the Future. 1843
• The Fiery Brook: Selected Writings

Neo-Kantian Period (c. 1850-1950 ce)

Helmholtz, Hermann von 1821-1894 ce Germany

• Science and Culture: Popular and Philosophical Essays 1853-1892 (trans. 1995)
• Epistemological Writings: The Paul Hertz/Moritz Schlick Centenary Edition of 1921 with Notes and Commentary by the Editors. 1854 (trans. 1977)

Lotze, Hermann 1817-1881 ce Germany

• Lotze’s Outlines of Philosophy - 1884-1887(1882-1884)
• Logic: In Three Books 1884(1874)
• Metaphysic: In Three Books 1884(1879)
• Microcosmus: An Essay Concerning Man and His Relation to the World 1885(1856-1864)

Spir, Afrikan 1837-1890 ce Russia

• Thought and Reality - 1873

Herbart, Johann Friedrich 1776-1841 ce Germany

• The Science of Education and the Aesthetic Revelation of the World - 1892

Windelband, Wilhelm 1848-1915 ce Germany

• A History of Philosophy 1893

Cohen, Hermann 1842-1918 ce Germany

• Ethics of Maimonides 1908
• Yearning for Form and Other Essays on Hermann Cohen’s Thought

Cassirer, Ernst 1874-1945 ce Germany

• Substance and function. Einstein’s theory of relativity 1910-1921
• Essays on Language, Art, Myth, and Technology 1919-1933
• The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms Vol. 1: Language 1923
• The Philosophy of the Enlightenment. 1932
• Language and Myth 1953
• The question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1954
• An essay on man: An introduction to a philosophy of human culture 1954
• The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms: Volume 2: Mythical Thought 1955
• The Renaissance Philosophy of Man: Petrarca, Valla, Ficino, Pico, Pomponazzi, Vives 1956
• The Myth of the State 1961
• Rousseau, Kant, Goethe: Two Essays 1963
• Logic of Humanities 1966
• The Problem of Knowledge: Philosophy, Science, and History Since Hegel 1969
• Kant’s Life and Thought 1983
• The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy 2000

Vaihinger, Hans 1852-1933 ce Germany

• philosophy of as if 1911

Rickert, Heinrich 1863-1936 ce Germany

• The Limits of Concept Formation in Natural Science 1913

Jaspers, Karl 1883-1969 ce Germany/Switzerland

• General Psychopathology 1913
• The origin and goal of history 1953
• Man in the Modern Age 1957
• Philosophy 1-3. 1969-1971
• The question of German guilt
• Way to Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy
• Truth and Symbol
• The Perennial Scope of Philosophy
• The Idea of the University
• Philosophy of Existence
• Nietzsche
• Philosophy and Psychopathology
• Plato and Augustine: From The Great Philosophers

Meyerson, Émile 1859-1933 ce France

• Explanation in the Sciences 1921
• The Relativistic Deduction: Epistemological Implications of the Theory of Relativity 1925

Hartmann, Nicolai 1882-1950 ce Germany

• How Is Critical Ontology Possible? Toward the Foundation of the General Theory of the Categories, Part One 1924
• Possibility and Actuality 1938
• New Ways of Ontology 1943(1952)
• German Philosophy in the Last Ten Years 1949
• Aesthetics 1953