Charles T. Wolfe is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Université de Toulouse-2 Jean-Jaurès. He works primarily in history and philosophy of the early modern life sciences, with a particular interest in materialism and vitalism. He is the author of Materialism: A Historico-Philosophical Introduction (2016), La philosophie de la biologie: une histoire du vitalisme (2019) and Lire le matérialisme (2020), and has edited or coedited volumes on monsters, brains, empiricism, biology and vitalism, including currently (w. D. Jalobeanu) the Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences and (w. J. Symons) The History and Philosophy of Materialism. He is co-editor of the book series 'History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences' (Springer).

Paolo Pecere is associate professor of History of Philosophy at the University of Roma Tre. His research ranges from early modern tocontemporary philosophy, natural science and psychology, with a focus on Kant and the Kantian legacy. His books include: La filosofia della natura in Kant (Pagina 2009), Dalla parte di Alice. La coscienza e l'immaginario (Mimesis 2015), Soul, Mind and Brain from Descartes to Cognitive Science. A Critical History (Springer 2020). His last book is the narrative essay Il dio che danza. Viaggi, trance, trasformazioni (nottetempo 2021).

Antonio Clericuzio is Professor of History of Science at the University of Roma Tre. He has held fellowhips from The Warburg Institute, The Wellcome Trust, The Royal Society, The Accademia dei Lincei. Clericuzio's research focuses on the history of matter theory, chemistry and medicine in the 16th and 17th century. He has published extensively on early modern atomism, Robert Boyle, Helmontianism and the history of life sciences. Clericuzio has published several books, including Elements, Principles and Atoms. Chemistry and Corpuscular Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century (2000), La macchina del mondo (2005), Le scienze nel Rinascimento (with Germana Ernst), 2008; Interpretare e curare. Medicina e salute nel Rinascimento (with Andrea Carlino and Maria Conforti), 2013. He has co-edited The Correspondence of Robert Boyle, 2001. His current book project focuses on Medicine, Chemistry and Natural Philosophy in Early Modern Italy.

Provides a new focus on mechanism in early modern life science

Studies the interplay between life and mind

Examines lesser-known mechanistic approaches

Introduction.- Chapter 1 Guido Giglioni (Macerata) Scaliger Bacon Harvey: A Trajectory in the Early Modern History of Vegetative Life.- Chapter 2 Andreas Blank (Klagenfurt) Jacob Martini on Vegetative Powers and the Question of Emergence.- Chapter 3 Oana Matei (Arad/Bucharest) Particles, universal spirit, and seeds: John Evelyn's matter theory in Elysium Britannicum.- Chapter 4 Riccardo Chiaradonna (Roma Tre) Plotinus and Ficino in Ralph Cudworth's philosophy of nature.- Chapter 5 Emanuela Scribano (Ca' Foscari University of Venice) Battles for nature: from Descartes to Boyle via Harvey.- Chapter 6 Barnaby Hutchins (Klagenfurt) Mechanism as a non-exhaustive ontology: Descartes and irreducibles.- Chapter 7 Delphine Bellis (Paul Valéry University, Montpellier) Animal Life and the Human Mind in Gassendi's Philosophy.- Chapter 8 Antonio Clericuzio (Rome) Mechanisms of Muscular Motion in 17th Century England.- Chapter 9 Claire Crignon (Paris) Does the soul always think ? Observing partial insanity (Willis and Locke).- Chapter 10 Antonio Nunziante (Padova) Nested Machines, Rule-Governed Series: Leibniz's Integrated Model of Life.- Chapter 11 Raphaële Andrault (CNRS-ENS Lyon) The diachronic mechanism of Spinoza's friends.- Chapter 12 Luca Tonetti (Sapienza, Rome) Irritating drugs and affected solids: The notion of "stimulus" in Baglivi's pathology.- Chapter 13 Matteo Favaretti Camposampiero (Ca' Foscari University of Venice) Psychology and Mechanism: Christian Wolff on the Soul-Body Analogy.- Chapter 14 Marco Storni (Ca' Foscari University of Venice) Mechanism, Matter and Force in Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis's Embryology.- Chapter 15 Cécilia Bognon-Küss (Paris-Diderot) Intussusception, vital mechanisms and the ontology of life.- Chapter 16 Charles Wolfe (Ghent) Expanded mechanism or heuristic vitalism?.- Chapter 17 Federico Boccaccini (Brasilia) Mental Machinery and active powers from Hartley to Ward.- Chapter 18 Liesbet De Kock (VUB Brussels) Mechanism and Teleology in Psychological Explanation: On Causes, Motives and the Methodological Versatility of Wilhelm Wundt's Scientific Psychology.- Chapter 19 Paolo Pecere (Roma Tre) Mechanism and "organisation of the mind" from Kant to Helmholtz.- Chapter 20 Lydia Patton (Virginia Tech) Vital Forces and Mental Activity: The Physiology of Perception and the History of the Qualia Debate.