Over the past few months there has been a series of interesting posts on the subject of early modern philosophy. I list some of them below, and when I have time I will probably say something about the topic.

Sorry that this is late.

Leibniz's Influence on 19th Century Logic (Volker Peckhaus)

Kant's Views on Space and Time (Andrew Janiak)

The following new articles relevant to the early modern period were published at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy for August:

Kenny Pearce has up a draft of a paper on Kant's applied ethics that looks interesting, "Kant's 'Bad' Examples":

In Part VII of Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments we find an interesting analogy developed between Stoicism and certain views of sportsmanship.

I recently came across early modern poet Sir John Davies's poems on the immortality of the soul, in his Nosce Teipsum. It is an interesting example of early modern philosophical argument in verse form, so I thought I would provide a sample.

When we last saw Boswell he was leaving Rousseau, intending at some point to visit the other great French luminary, Voltaire. On Monday, December 24, Boswell took a coach to Ferney, Voltaire's residence. When Boswell arrived, Voltaire was still in bed, so he had to wait until Voltaire finally rose and came down in his dressing gown. They talked some small talk -- Scotland, painting, Lord Kames's aesthetic theories, Hume (whom Voltaire called "a true philosopher"), and so forth. While Boswell dined that night at Ferney, with a number of Voltaire's guests, Voltaire did not attend the dinner, which was instead presided over by his niece, Madame Denis. Dinner conversation seems to have been lively, although Boswell seems at one point to have become exasperated over a number of snide comments made about Rousseau.

Having found a clever way to get around Rousseau's reticence, Boswell returned on December 14 to try once again to gather moral advice from Rousseau:

Previously we saw that Boswell managed to make a good first impression on Rousseau; despite Rousseau's inaccessibility and illness Boswell was able to get an interview and chat pleasantly with him. Boswell, however, was interested in more than this; he was dead set on further discussions, and in particular on gathering what he could of Rousseau's moral wisdom.

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.