Ariew (U. of South Florida) and Watkins (U. of California-San Diego) illustrate the movement of thought in early modern Europe from Descartes and his contemporaries to Leibniz and his peers Spinoza, Locke, and Berkeley and thence to its culmination in Hume and Kant. They use whole texts whenever possible and a single translator for each thinker in order to standardize terminology so the student's focus can remain on the ideas and their complex interaction and evolution. The first edition is said to have appeared a decade ago, and this second has dropped some of the readings and added others. No index is provided. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)