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
... awareness of this oppo- sition. He saw himself as presenting a new philosophy, both natural and metaphysical, to take the place of Aristotle's and St Thomas Aquinas's. Since he wanted to take their place in the School, he was careful to ...
... awareness of this oppo- sition. He saw himself as presenting a new philosophy, both natural and metaphysical, to take the place of Aristotle's and St Thomas Aquinas's. Since he wanted to take their place in the School, he was careful to ...
Page 17
... awareness . But their proper objects , ' pain and pleasure , light , colours , sounds , smells , tastes , heat , hardness and the other tactile qualities ' , are grasped clearly and distinctly by the mind only as objects of sensation ...
... awareness . But their proper objects , ' pain and pleasure , light , colours , sounds , smells , tastes , heat , hardness and the other tactile qualities ' , are grasped clearly and distinctly by the mind only as objects of sensation ...
Page 19
... awareness of the existence of a substance on the grasp of its essence he will not have 'true knowledge, since no act of awareness that can be rendered doubtful seems fit to be called knowledge' (AT, VII, 141). This, then, is the ...
... awareness of the existence of a substance on the grasp of its essence he will not have 'true knowledge, since no act of awareness that can be rendered doubtful seems fit to be called knowledge' (AT, VII, 141). This, then, is the ...
Page 22
... awareness. There cannot be self- conscious cognition of thought without there being knowledge that a conscious thing exists; for in self-consciousness the soul perceives its immediate object, an actually existing mind, as actually ...
... awareness. There cannot be self- conscious cognition of thought without there being knowledge that a conscious thing exists; for in self-consciousness the soul perceives its immediate object, an actually existing mind, as actually ...
Page 23
... awareness; but they did not use awareness to draw the line dividing matter from spirit. Cartesian sensation, on the other hand, is the act of an immaterial soul or substance; it involves a bodily act only occasionally.28 The Scholastic ...
... awareness; but they did not use awareness to draw the line dividing matter from spirit. Cartesian sensation, on the other hand, is the act of an immaterial soul or substance; it involves a bodily act only occasionally.28 The Scholastic ...
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