Locating materialism within the larger history of ideas, Vital Matters examines how and why eighteenth-century scientists, philosophers, writers, and artists questioned nature and its animating principles.

Helen Deutsch is a professor in the Department of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.Terrall Mary :

Mary Terrall is a professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Andrew Wells:
‘This is a collection that is breathtaking in its range… Deutsch and Terrall have compiled an admirably broad range of contributions on a topic of crucial importance for eighteenth-century studies, and this is a book that deserves to be read by students of its themes and period. In the final analysis, Vital Matters matters.’