Idea and Ontology by Marc A Hight

Idea and Ontology by Marc A Hight

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Idea and Ontology by Marc A Hight

Provides an interpretation of the development of the ontology of ideas from Descartes to Hume that reaffirms the vital role metaphysical concerns played in early modern thinking--Provided by publisher.

“Marc Hight’s book deals in great depth with the ontology of ideas in the early modern period, concentrating principally on Descartes, Malebranche, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, and HumeHe shows that there is a great deal still to be learned on this traditional topic as it concerns each of these great philosophers. Hight’s insightful and very well-defended interpretations will likely excite important new interest and debate on this central topic.”

—George Pappas, The Ohio State University


“A wide-ranging study of the ‘way of ideas’ and its metaphysics, culminating in a bold reinterpretation of Berkeley.”

—Kenneth Winkler, Yale University


Idea and Ontology is an important book that should change our thinking about the development of philosophy in the pre-Kantian period. With care, attention to detail, and philosophical rigor, Hight systematically demolishes the popular ‘early modern tale’ about an epistemological turn and shows the ineliminability of the question ‘What kind of thing is an idea?’ Hight’s sympathetic and sophisticated interpretation of Berkeley is rightly placed center stage in his account of the progress from Descartes to Hume and gives us a new insight into his relation to his predecessors and especially to Locke. While Locke shied away from ontological questions in favor of the epistemological, Hight’s Berkeley sees the importance of taking ontology as seriously as epistemology if he is to save the ordinary commitment to naïve realism from the skeptical threat posed by the theory of ideas.”

—T. W. C. Stoneham, University of York


“Hight’s book is a very interesting and original inquiry into the difficulty early modern philosophers had in reconciling the central concept of ‘idea’ with traditional ontological categories like substance and mode. Hight’s point is that the claim of some early moderns to avoid those categories has significant difficulties, since the notion of ‘idea’ in some ways has the properties of a mode and in other ways the properties of a substance.”

—Richard Brook, Bloomsburg University


“Well written and clearly argued.”

—F. Wilson Choice

Marc A. Hight is Elliott Associate Professor of Philosophy at Hampden-Sydney College.

SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780271058771
ISBN 10 0271058773
Title Idea and Ontology
Author Marc A Hight
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Pennsylvania State University Press
Year published 2012-11-15
Number of pages 296
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.