Written by a team of leading international scholars, this book examines a crucial period of philosophy from the perspective of themes and lines of thought that cut across authorial, disciplinary and national boundaries.Its fresh approach opens up new ways for specialists and students to conceptualise the history of early modern and Enlightenment thought within philosophy, politics, religious studies and literature. This critical reference work takes a problem-based approach to the history of philosophy, highlighting the continued richness and relevance of sixteenth- to eighteenth-century philosophy.The five sections of the book explore: historiography and broader structures of thought in the period; the intersection of philosophy and politics; life and the metaphysics of bodies; theories of knowledge, with a special emphasis on social epistemology; and themes that stretch the boundaries of cognition (art, cosmology, the infinite and religion).