Early modern philosophy is characterized as the heyday of a new scientific and philosophical paradigm: Cartesianism replaces the neo- Aristotelian and late Aristotelian movements that had shaped the philosophical agenda for a long time, and had been of great influence until the late 17th century.
The research group "Transformations of Mind", founded by Dominik Perler, who was awarded the Leibniz Prize of the DFG in 2006, will inquire into this period of change and reconstruction.
Philosophical psychology is of central interest to the project, as it is in this area that the aforementioned opposition of paradigms is particulary evident. Furthermore, the theory of ideas and the role of teleology are of great significance. Authors investigated range from Pietro Pomponazzi to David Hume. It is the central goal of this group of researchers to link an appropriate historical inquiry to a genuine systematic approach, thus making the systematic relevance of various conceptions explicit.