Baumgarten's rationalism

This chapter reconsiders the character of Baumgarten's supposed place in the rationalist tradition by pointing out that the strict opposition usually thought to hold between rationalism, empiricism, and theologically based philosophies in the eighteenth century tends to obscure the complexity of much of the thought of this period. In particular, Look examines the historical context and substance of Baumgarten's thought, focusing on the principle of sufficient reason and Baumgarten's definition of philosophy, and shows how in various ways the Metaphysics seeks to unify strands from all three traditions.