Cartesian Metaphysics: The Scholastic Origins of Modern PhilosophyThis is the first book-length study of Descartes's metaphysics to place it in its immediate historical context, the Late Scholastic philosophy of thinkers such as Suárez against which Descartes reacted. Jorge Secada views Cartesian philosophy as an 'essentialist' reply to the 'existentialism' of the School, and his discussion includes careful analyses and original interpretations of such central Cartesian themes as the role of scepticism, intentionality and the doctrine of the material falsity of ideas, universals and the relation between sense and understanding, causation and the proofs of the existence of God, the theory of substance, and the dualism of mind and matter. His study offers a picture of Descartes's metaphysics that is both novel and philosophically illuminating. |
From inside the book
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Page 1
... Meditations on First Philosophy, let alone of the entire corpus of his writings. Its aim is more modest. It seeks to offer a unified reading of Descartes's metaphysics against the background of Scholastic philosophy. Descartes moved ...
... Meditations on First Philosophy, let alone of the entire corpus of his writings. Its aim is more modest. It seeks to offer a unified reading of Descartes's metaphysics against the background of Scholastic philosophy. Descartes moved ...
Page 9
... Meditations , the canonical presentation of his metaphysics , Descartes never establishes the existence of a substance while being ignorant of its nature , and in at least one case he displays knowledge of a substantial essence without ...
... Meditations , the canonical presentation of his metaphysics , Descartes never establishes the existence of a substance while being ignorant of its nature , and in at least one case he displays knowledge of a substantial essence without ...
Page 16
... Meditations served him ' partly to prepare my readers ' minds for the consideration of the things of the intellect ... and partly ... to show the firmness of the truths which I propound ' ( AT , VII , 171–2 ) . These two aims are not ...
... Meditations served him ' partly to prepare my readers ' minds for the consideration of the things of the intellect ... and partly ... to show the firmness of the truths which I propound ' ( AT , VII , 171–2 ) . These two aims are not ...
Page 18
... Meditations, at the Principles of Philosophy or The Search for Truth. It is true even of the 'Arguments ... arranged in a geometri- cal fashion' appended at the end of the Second Replies. Here Descartes does not deploy his famous method ...
... Meditations, at the Principles of Philosophy or The Search for Truth. It is true even of the 'Arguments ... arranged in a geometri- cal fashion' appended at the end of the Second Replies. Here Descartes does not deploy his famous method ...
Page 19
... Meditations Let us, then, address this second aspect of Descartes's essentialism, that in actual practice he abided by the essentialist order. This in turn involves two claims: first, that when Descartes professes to know that a ...
... Meditations Let us, then, address this second aspect of Descartes's essentialism, that in actual practice he abided by the essentialist order. This in turn involves two claims: first, that when Descartes professes to know that a ...
Contents
1 | |
5 | |
Part II Ideas and the road from essence to existence | 75 |
Part III Cartesian substances | 181 |
Epilogue | 265 |
Notes | 270 |
References | 307 |
Index | 323 |
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Cartesian Metaphysics: The Scholastic Origins of Modern Philosophy Jorge Secada Limited preview - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
According to Descartes actual apprehension Aquinas argued Aristotelian Aristotle Arnauld attribute awareness body Cartesian causal chapter claim clear and distinct clearly and distinctly colour conceived conception corporeal substance creatures dependence Descartes's determinable direct realist distinguished divine doctrine Duns Scotus effect efficient cause entity essence and existence essential definitions essentialist exist in reality existentialism existentialist explained extension external fact follows Fonseca formally Gassendi God’s grasp Hobbes human idea imagination immediate objects independent individual infinite infinite regress innate intellect intelligible Jesuit judgement knowledge Late Scholastic Leibniz matter metaphysics mind modes nature Nominalists notion objective reality ontological argument perceive philosophy possible Posterior Analytics predicate principle prior proof question real distinction real essences real properties refer relation Replies sceptical Scholasticism Second Meditation sensation sense sensory perception shape soul species St Thomas Suárez substantial suppose Third Meditation Thomist thought triangle true truth understanding unity universal