This collection presents some of the most vital and original recent writings on Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, the three greatest rationalists of the early modern period. Their work offered brilliant and distinct integrations of science, morals, metaphysics, and religion, which today remain at the center of philosophical discussion. The essays written especially for this volume explore how these three philosophical systems treated matter, substance, human freedom, natural necessity, knowledge, mind, and consciousness. The contributors include some of the most prominent writers in the field, including Jonathan Bennett, Michael Della Rocca, Jan A. Cover, Catherine Wilson, Stephen Voss, Edwin Curley, Don Garrett, and Margaret D. Wilson.

Introduction; PART I - MATTER AND SUBSTANCE; 1. Space and Subtle Matter in Descartes's Metaphysics; 2. Descartes on Nothing in Particular; 3. "If a Body Meets a Body": Descartes on Body-Body Causation; 4. Descartes's Extended Substances; 5. Spinoza's Extended Substance: Cartesian and Leibnizian Reflections; 6. Leibniz's Constructivism and Infinitely Folded Matter; 7. Locke and Leibniz and the Debate over Species; PART II - FREEDOM AND NECESSITY; 8. Descartes on Spontaneity, Indifference, and Alternatives; 9. The Range of Leibnizian Compatibilism; 10. The Necessity of Finite Modes and Geometrical Containment in Spinoza's Metaphysics; 11. Spinoza's Necessitarianism Reconsidered; PART III - MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS; 12. A Spectator at the Theater of the World; 13. Distinctness; 14. Causation and Similarity in Descartes; 15. Teleology in Spinoza and Early Modern Rationalism; 16. "For They Do Not Agree In Nature With Us": Spinoza on the Lower Animals; 17. Leibniz on Consciousness and Self-Consciousness; 18. The Illusory Nature of Leibniz's System; Bibliography; Index