Modern philosophy will determine the scope of one's use of "modern philosophy." How much of Renaissance intellectual history is part of modern philosophy is disputed: the Early Renaissance is often considered less modern and more medieval compared to the later High Renaissance. By the 17th and 18th centuries the major figures in philosophy of mind, epistemology, and metaphysics were roughly divided into two main groups. The "Rationalists," mostly in France and Germany, argued all knowledge must begin from certain "innate ideas" in the mind. Major rationalists were Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, and Nicolas Malebranche. The "Empiricists," by contrast, held that knowledge
William Seager (philosopher) – present. William Seager (philosopher) William Edward Seager (born April 11, 1952 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian philosopher. He is a Professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. His academic specialties of the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of science He received his B.A. in 1973 from the University of Alberta. his M.A. in 1976 from the same university and his Ph.D in 1981 from the University of Toronto under the direction of R. B. DeSousa with a thesis on "Materialism and the Foundations of Representation" He has been Associate Editor of "Canadian Journal of Philosophy"