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. |
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Page 17
... distinctly by the mind only as objects of sensation and never as 'things, or affections of things' having perhaps 'some existence outside our thought' (AT, VIII–1, 23 and 22; and IX–2, 45).22 Secondly, sensations are causally ...
... distinctly by the mind only as objects of sensation and never as 'things, or affections of things' having perhaps 'some existence outside our thought' (AT, VIII–1, 23 and 22; and IX–2, 45).22 Secondly, sensations are causally ...
Page 18
... distinctly. This is so whether we look at the Discourse on the Method or the Meditations, at the Principles of Philosophy or The Search for Truth. It is true even of the 'Arguments . . . arranged in a geometrical fashion' appended at ...
... distinctly. This is so whether we look at the Discourse on the Method or the Meditations, at the Principles of Philosophy or The Search for Truth. It is true even of the 'Arguments . . . arranged in a geometrical fashion' appended at ...
Page 20
... distinctly, Descartes examines first, the self, and then within the self, the objects of its acts of understanding and of sensation. The upshot is that at the start of the Third Meditation Descartes is ready to confront the sceptical ...
... distinctly, Descartes examines first, the self, and then within the self, the objects of its acts of understanding and of sensation. The upshot is that at the start of the Third Meditation Descartes is ready to confront the sceptical ...
Page 24
... distinctly perceive myself in self-awareness I perceive my sensations and acts of imagination only as modes of thought; and I know I exist in the measure in which I am distinctly self-aware of my acts, properties or modes. In the Second ...
... distinctly perceive myself in self-awareness I perceive my sensations and acts of imagination only as modes of thought; and I know I exist in the measure in which I am distinctly self-aware of my acts, properties or modes. In the Second ...
Page 25
... distinctly understand. Descartes makes clear how strongly he takes the certainty of 'I exist' to depend on a clear and distinct discursive understanding of the self. Immediately after first stating 'I am, I exist', he writes that 'I ...
... distinctly understand. Descartes makes clear how strongly he takes the certainty of 'I exist' to depend on a clear and distinct discursive understanding of the self. Immediately after first stating 'I am, I exist', he writes that 'I ...
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 actual appears Aquinas argument attribute awareness body called Cartesian causal cause chapter claim clear common complete conceived conception concerning considered contains contents created creatures definition dependence Descartes Descartes’s determinable direct discussion distinction distinctly distinguished doctrine doubt effect entity essence essential essentialist examine existence explained extension external fact figure follows formally Gassendi given God’s hand holds human idea imagination immediate impossible independent individual intellect intelligible intentional knowledge known material matter means Meditation merely metaphysics mind modes nature necessary notion objects particular perceive perception perfection philosophy positive possible present principle produced proof properties purely question real properties reality reason refer relation Replies representative requires sceptical Scholastic sensation sense sensory shape similar simple soul species Suárez substance suggested suppose taken things thinking Third thought true truth understanding universal writes