The Aristotelian Tradition and the Rise of British Empiricism: Logic and Epistemology in the British Isles (1570–1689): 32 2013th Edition

From the reviews:

“Marco Sgarbi offers a detailed examination of the epistemology and methodologies propounded by the logic textbooks in use at both Oxford and Cambridge … . Sgarbi has done sterling work in surveying the neglected logic texts of the period. The great value of his study is its detailed examination of these humble textbooks and his demonstration of their value as a source in the history of philosophy. For that reason it will be a valuable point of reference for all historians of early modern philosophy.” (Sarah Hutton, Intellectual History Review, October, 2013)

“Sgarbi, who has read the works of Ricardo Pozzo carefully, has written a book with a title that will command immediate attention from a wide range of historians and philosophers of early modern science. … Sgarbi’s energetic researches have produced a fairly thorough work in which nearly every printed English logic textbook is dealt with. … The book will be very welcome as introducing a necessary and very helpful nuancing to the views of the development of empiricism … .” (Daniel C. Anderson, Journal of Early Modern Studies, Vol. 2 (2), 2013)

This book is a radical reappraisal of the importance of Aristotelianism in Britain. Using a full range of manuscripts as well as printed sources, it provides an entirely new interpretation of the impact of the early-modern Aristotelian tradition upon the rise of British Empiricism, and reexamines the fundamental shift from a humanist logic to epistemology and facultative logic. The task is to reconstruct the philosophical background and framework in which the thought of philosophers such Locke, Berkeley and Hume originated: some aspects of their empiricism can be explained only in reference to the academic Aristotelian tradition, even if these authors established themselves as anti-scholastic, anti-Aristotelian philosophers outside the official institutions.