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 vii
... 183 8 The essence and the existence of Cartesian substances 205 9 The real distinction or the body and the minds 236 Epilogue References Index 265 307 323 Preface I began writing this book about twelve years ago, Contents.
... 183 8 The essence and the existence of Cartesian substances 205 9 The real distinction or the body and the minds 236 Epilogue References Index 265 307 323 Preface I began writing this book about twelve years ago, Contents.
Page 14
... body is extension conceived as size, shape, and movement or rest; and its accidents are determinate sizes, shapes and amounts of motion. If someone knows that a doubting substance exists, he thereby knows that a thinking substance ...
... body is extension conceived as size, shape, and movement or rest; and its accidents are determinate sizes, shapes and amounts of motion. If someone knows that a doubting substance exists, he thereby knows that a thinking substance ...
Page 15
... body ' , then from the fact that there is no instantaneous motion we can prove that a vacuum does not exist , since if a place lacked body , movement would happen in an instant ( TPA , II , 2 ; II , p . 415a and b ; contrast AT , VIII ...
... body ' , then from the fact that there is no instantaneous motion we can prove that a vacuum does not exist , since if a place lacked body , movement would happen in an instant ( TPA , II , 2 ; II , p . 415a and b ; contrast AT , VIII ...
Page 17
... body ( AT , VIII - 1 , 23 ) . Consider a feeling of pain . From such feeling the mind knows that the body is in a certain state . Though the pain does not represent the state the body is in , it is an effect of the bodily state ...
... body ( AT , VIII - 1 , 23 ) . Consider a feeling of pain . From such feeling the mind knows that the body is in a certain state . Though the pain does not represent the state the body is in , it is an effect of the bodily state ...
Page 23
... body, an animal. Scholastics of course acknowledged that sensation is a sort of 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 ...
... body, an animal. Scholastics of course acknowledged that sensation is a sort of 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 ...
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