The Making of the Modern Mind

John Herman Randall, Jr.'s The Making of the Modern Mind is a historical and philosophical work that reconstructs the intellectual and historical conditions that shaped philosophical systems. It was revised from his earlier work, The Western Mind.1

The book explores the emergence of modern philosophy, a period primarily in Western Europe and North America from the 17th to 19th centuries. This era is characterized by the rise of empiricism and rationalism, and significant transformations in metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics, notably influenced by Immanuel Kant. Randall's work places philosophical thought within its historical context, examining how science was integrated into traditional frameworks and how ideas about the mind, subjectivity, and the distinction between subjective and objective reality developed.213