Prof.dr. Theo Verbeek works mainly on early modern philosophy. Within that field he specifically concentrates on Descartes and Cartesianism (especially Dutch Cartesianism), Spinoza and the early Enlightenment.

Current projects on Descartes focus on editorial problems (together with Dr Erik-Jan Bos he prepares contributions to a new edition of Descartes for the 'Bibliothèque de La Pléiade' and works on a new critical edition of Descartes' Correspondence), translations (Dutch translations of Descartes' passions de l'âme and of a selection of the correspondence), biography (he received an NWO grant for a study of Descartes' scientific network) and methodological and epistemological problems in Descartes' 'scientific' work; Since his book on Spinoza's Theologico-political Treatise (Aldershot 2003) there has been a shift of emphasis in the direction of Spinoza's theory of mind and action (relation of imagination, reason and intellect; theory of the imagination; theory of the passions, etc); In recent years some of the themes discussed in the PhD dissertation on La Mettrie are being revived, also against the background of a critique of Jonathan Israel's work on the Enlightenment; In the planning stage is a work on (mainly Dutch) Cartesianism, which will concentrate on problems of language and communication.

History of Philosophy