Renaissance And 17th Century Rationalism, The

'The Renaissance and 17th Century Rationalism' covers a period of three hundred and fifty years, from the middle of the 14th century to the early years of the 18th century: the birth of modern philosophy. The volume covers the history of two very important philosophical movements during this time: the Renaissance, and the scholastic tradition it interacted with; and 17th century rationalism, where modern philosophy comes to being with the works of Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche, and Leibniz. Thevolume also considers the work of philosophers who were not rationalists such as Bacon, Hobbes and Gassendi, but whose thoughts elicited responses from the rationalists. These time period was particularly important because it marked the decline in the importance that Christian ideas had for philosophy and because many of the rationalists saw themselves as making a new start.