This volume, which grew out of a 1995 NEH seminar on the Rationalists, presents 19 previously unpublished papers on work of Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz. It is thematically organized into three Parts: Matter and Substance, Freedom and Necessity, and Mind and Consciousness.

This collection presents some of the most vital and original recent writings on Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, the three greatest rationalists of the early modern period. Their work offered brilliant and distinct integrations of science, morals, metaphysics, and religion, which today remain at the center of philosophical discussion. The essays written especially for this volume explore how these three philosophical systems treated matter, substance, human freedom, natural necessity, knowledge, mind, and consciousness.

A very interesting project.