Early Modern Secondary Sources
Many secondary sources are simplistic, inaccurate, or vague, so be careful selecting them since they can generate more obscurity and confusion than clarity. Secondary sources on the internet and very brief sources are especially unreliable. It can be difficult to find sources for undergraduates that aren’t overly complex and technical. If you need help clarifying certain issues in our readings or in a paper you are writing, I would recommend starting with the articles in the electronic encyclopedias below, which are briefer than most other sources though generally quite reliable. I would also recommend the chapters in the Routledge History of Philosophy, and the secondary sources listed in the footnote at the end of each of the chapter introductions in our book. Finally, Grant’s Physical Science in the Middle Ages is a relatively short book on the emergence of the concept of mechanism, focusing on Galileo’s late medieval precursors.
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy – accessible online through the SCSU Library website, password required
http://0-www.rep.routledge.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Routledge History of Philosophy, ed. G. H. R. Parkinson and S. G. Shanker, vols. 4-6 (London: Routledge, 1997), Reference B51.4 .R68 (reference only – can’t be checked out).
Edward Grant, Physical Science in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977).