Rationalism, Platonism and God

"This volume addresses an issue central to the study of early-modern philosophy, theology, and the origins of modern science." "The three main essays on Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz, with extensive responses, explore the common ground of the great early-modern Rationalist theories, and examine the ways in which the mainstream Platonic tradition permeates these theories." "John Cottingham identifies characteristically Platonic themes in Descartes's cosmology and metaphysics." "Was Spinoza a Neoplatonist theist, critical Cartesian, or naturalistic materialist? Michael Ayers argues that he was all of these." "Robert Merrihew Adams focuses on the Rationalists' arguments for the Platonist, anti-Empiricist principle of 'the priority of the perfect', i.e. the principle that finite attributes are to be understood through corresponding perfections of God, rather than the reverse." "These essays receive informed and constructive criticism, and development at the hands of Douglas Hedley, Sarah Hutton and Maria Rosa Antognazza."--BOOK JACKET.Ayers, Michael is the author of 'Rationalism, Platonism and God', published 2008 under ISBN 9780197264201 and ISBN 0197264204.