The History of Materialism and Criticism of Its Present Importance

Description Lange’s lengthy history contains a useful overview of materialist authors from Lucretius to Holbach, along with some (biased) discussion of the Kantian and post-Kantian reaction against materialist thought. Although Lange is sympathetic to many […]

The Passions of the Soul

Description Although this work has been overshadowed in the history of philosophy by Descartes’s more famous Meditations, it contains his most mature and influential discussion of mental states (specifically emotions) as the object of scientific […]

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Description The Essay marks an important moment in the prehistory of empirical psychology. Locke seeks to explain how we come to have certain mental states (“ideas”) while doggedly avoiding metaphysical speculation of the sort found […]