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 10
... examine the order actually followed by Descartes when acquiring knowledge of the essence and existence of the self , of God , and of material substance . The rationale of Scholastic existentialism Descartes did not want to claim merely ...
... examine the order actually followed by Descartes when acquiring knowledge of the essence and existence of the self , of God , and of material substance . The rationale of Scholastic existentialism Descartes did not want to claim merely ...
Page 13
... examine them and, through careful observation, discover what properties essentially belong to members of the kind, what properties, that is, constitute the members of the kind as what they are. This fundamentally empirical enterprise is ...
... examine them and, through careful observation, discover what properties essentially belong to members of the kind, what properties, that is, constitute the members of the kind as what they are. This fundamentally empirical enterprise is ...
Page 18
... examine the ideas of those natures which contain a combination of many attributes, such as the nature of a triangle, or of a square, or of any other figure, as well as the nature of mind, of body, and above all the nature of God'. He ...
... examine the ideas of those natures which contain a combination of many attributes, such as the nature of a triangle, or of a square, or of any other figure, as well as the nature of mind, of body, and above all the nature of God'. He ...
Page 20
... 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 argu- ments and ...
... 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 argu- ments and ...
Page 22
... examine how Descartes dealt with knowledge of his own essence and existence. The definition of a mind does not entail the existence of the mind defined. Nevertheless a mind's knowledge of its own essence, as indeed its knowledge of any ...
... examine how Descartes dealt with knowledge of his own essence and existence. The definition of a mind does not entail the existence of the mind defined. Nevertheless a mind's knowledge of its own essence, as indeed its knowledge of any ...
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