Powers and Abilities in Early Modern Philosophy

Sebastian Bender is Junior Professor of Philosophy at Georg‑August‑Universität Göttingen. He specializes in early modern philosophy, with a focus on the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He is the author of Leibniz’ Metaphysik der Modalität (2016) and co‑editor of Causation and Cognition in Early Modern Philosophy (2020). Dominik Perler is Professor of Philosophy at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Co‑Director of the Human Abilities Center. His research focuses on medieval and early modern philosophy. His books include Feelings Transformed. Philosophical Theories of the Emotions, 1270–1670 (author, 2018), The Faculties: A History (editor, 2015), and Causation and Cognition in Early Modern Philosophy (co‑editor, 2020).

Introduction Sebastian Bender and Dominik Perler 1. Suárez on Powers and Abilities as Inner Causes Dominik Perler 2. Real Tendencies: Descartes on Dispositions and Powers in the Material World Jean-Pascal Anfray 3. Occasionalism, Powers, and Human Freedom in French Cartesianism Tad M. Schmaltz 4. Sergeant versus Le Grand on Forms and Causal Power Han Thomas Adriaenssen 5. Move your Body! Cavendish on Self-Motion Colin Chamberlain 6. Hobbes on Powers, Accidents, and Motions Stewart D. Duncan 7. Gravity, Occult Qualities, and Newton’s Ontology of Powers Patrick J. Connolly 8. Spinoza on Powers and Abilities Martin Lin 9. Locke on the Right Use of Our Abilities Jennifer Marušić 10. Forces and Abilities in Leibniz Stephan Schmid 11. Du Châtelet on the Powers of Bodies and Minds Marcy P. Lascano 12. Creatures of Habit: Condillac on the Abilities of Animals Jeremy Dunham 13. Moral Competence as a Distinctively Human Ability: Rousseau and Herder Anik Waldow 14. Watts and Trotter Cockburn on the Power of Thinking Ruth Boeker 15. Mental Faculties and Powers and the Foundations of Hume’s Philosophy Karl Schafer 16. Reid on Powers and Abilities M. Folescu 17. Kant on Abilities, Human Freedom, and Complete Determination Sebastian Bender