James Boswell, best known for his biography of Samuel Johnson, had a very interesting December in 1764. In his tour of the Continent, Boswell had come to Switzerland, and there he met Rousseau and Voltaire. Unfortunately, he never had a chance to write up the meetings in good form, as he had with Johnson; but even though the interactions are scattered through journal entries, memoranda, and correspondence in cryptic form, it still provides a valuable sighting of the two philosophers in their natural habitat.

Antoine Arnauld (1612-1694), philosopher and Jansenist theologian.

John Norris (1657-1711), Rector of Bremerton and British Malebranchean.

Carnivalesque 44, an early modern edition, is up at Mercurius Politicus. Those interested in early modern thought might like the post on early modern female columnists at "Jane Austen's World"; there is also a good post at "diapsalmata" on the potential pitfalls of digital history for early modern scholars.

Mary Astell (c. 1666-1731), English philosopher.

The following is a list of links to Philosophy Bites interviews on early modern themes:

Philosophy Bites has an excellent interview with Ray Monk on Philosophy and Biography (mp3 format). Monk, of course, uses his experience with writing biographies for Wittgenstein and Russell, but much of what is discussed, of course, is generalizable.

The newest early modern edition of Carnivalesque is up at Early Modern Notes. It has a number of great entries; I especially recommend the series on early modern print culture at Mercurius Politicus. Enjoy!

This is a re-post of a post from a prior version of this site, originally published 31 August 2005.

Depending on whether you date according to the Julian or the Gregorian calendar, Niels Stensen was born in Copenhagen January 1 (Julian) or January 11 (Gregorian) 1638. (The Gregorian calendar only began to be used in Denmark itself after 1700.) He was a second child of the goldsmith Sten Pedersen; his mother's name was Anne.

In 1656 he matriculated under the name Nicolaus Stenonis at Copenhagen University,

This is a re-post of a post from a previous version of this site; it was originally published on 7 March 2005.

Last week I gave a guest lecture on Butler’s view of conscience. Here are the notes for it.

Joseph Butler (1692-1712)

Major Works:

• Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel (1726)
• The Analogy of religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature

Class Topic: Butler on Conscience