Some texts from Early Modern Philosophy (and science)

А пък това е писмо-списък от Бенет с новите неща:

Since the last report, in February 2010, the website at www.earlymoderntexts.com has acquired

1. Robert Boyle's "The Excellence of the Mechanical Philosophy" and "The Origin of Forms and Qualities" (the "theoretical part", not Part 2 which is all about particular experiments). J. J. MacIntosh has given excellent help with these items.

2. Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman".

3. Benjamin Constant's lecture "The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns".

4. Locke's "Letter on Toleration".

5. Isaac Newton's astonishing letter to the Royal Society announcing, explaining, and defending his "new theory about light and colour".

6. Chapters 5 and 8 through 11 of Spinoza's "Theology and Politics", completing the website's version of that work. In this, as in my other Spinoza efforts, I have been generously helped by Edwin Curley.

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An attempt at a version of Mary Astell's "A Serious Proposal to the Ladies" (1694) came to nothing. After spending some 40 hours on this, not braced by any enthusiasm for the work or its author, I eventually faced the fact that she and I between us weren't producing anything philosophically useful.

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In February through August the average weekly number of visits to the site was 7,000.
The website has just completed its sixth year.

Jonathan Bennett