Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / J. Pietarinen and V. Viljanen -- Introduction / Juhani Pietarinen and Valtteri Viljanen -- Chapter One. Plato’s Dualism: The Cosmos As Active And Passive Power / Juhani Pietarinen -- Chapter Two. The Active Principle In Stoic Philosophy / Håvard Løkke -- Chapter Three. Plotinus On Act And Power / Eyjólfur Kjalar Emilsson -- Chapter Four. Power And Activity In Early Medieval Philosophy / Tomas Ekenberg -- Chapter Five. Power And Possibility In Thomas Aquinas / Andreas Schmidt -- Chapter Six. Causal Power In Descartes’ Mind-Body Union / Juhani Pietarinen -- Chapter Seven. De Novo Creat: Descartes On Action, Interaction, And Continuous Creation / Timo Kajamies -- Chapter Eight. Motion And Reason: Hobbes’ Difficulties With The Idea Of Active Power / Juhani Pietarinen -- Chapter Nine. Spinoza’s Actualist Model Of Power / Valtteri Viljanen -- Chapter Ten. Leibniz On Force, Activity, And Passivity / Arto Repo and Valtteri Viljanen -- Chapter Eleven. Kant On Force And Activity / Arto Repo and Hemmo Laiho -- Chapter Twelve. Differences That Are None. Hegel’s Theory Of Force In The Phenomenology Of Spirit / Andreas Schmidt -- Chapter Thirteen. Schopenhauer’s Twofold Dynamism / Valtteri Viljanen -- Bibliography / J. Pietarinen and V. Viljanen -- Index / J. Pietarinen and V. Viljanen.

Available to subscribing member institutions only.

What is the ultimate explanatory factor for the existence of the world, for all its changing phenomena and the enduring order found in it? In the history of Western thought, we can find a longstanding philosophical tendency to answer this question in terms of power: the universe is understood as an ordered whole produced by a rational power, that is, by the power of reason. That power is thought to be active in the sense of being capable of existing and acting ‘in itself’ as an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable cause of the world. The essays in this collection discuss the idea of active power in the world-explanations of Plato, the Stoics, Neoplatonism, early and late medieval scholasticism, Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer.