Reviews for Providence Lost

The average rating for Providence Lost based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-09-07 00:00:00 Philip Held It was hit-and-miss... some chapters (the Stoics, Kant, Leibniz) were coherent and focused, others (Descartes) felt shoehorned in, and only tangentially related to her argument and narrative (which was hard to discern, at times). I was frustrated that she skated over how free will and necessity could be harmoniously conjoined; one way of thinking about free will is in an absolute sense, either it's free or it isn't (can will be a little bit free? If it's constrained at all, then it's not free, right?). I think she could have talked a bit more (well, a lot more) about how free is free. Overall, though, I'm glad I read the book, and I did get something out of it: a renewed appreciation for the Stoics, a new appreciation for the Epicureans, and some interesting observations on dilemmas in our modern way of thinking about will and necessity. And the chapter on Descartes, though relatively weak on providence and Descartes, was a very good essay on gender and philosophy.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-11-29 00:00:00 Corey Seidl A wonderful appraisal or ancient and modern dilemmas in knowledge and art. So far I highly agree with her. I appreciate her willingness to attack free will without resorting to anti-philosophical philistinism or scientism.