Cartesian Metaphysics: The Scholastic Origins of Modern Philosophy

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, Apr 20, 2000 - Philosophy - 333 pages
This 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

Contents

Prologue
1
Part I The unity of Cartesian metaphysics
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
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Bibliographic information