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 8
... follow this order : first , " is it ? " ; second , " what is it ? " " ( TPA , II , 1 ; II , p . 412a ) . Suárez , in the Metaphysical Disputations stated : " the question " what is it ? " presupposes the question " is it ? " ( MD , XXIX ...
... follow this order : first , " is it ? " ; second , " what is it ? " " ( TPA , II , 1 ; II , p . 412a ) . Suárez , in the Metaphysical Disputations stated : " the question " what is it ? " presupposes the question " is it ? " ( MD , XXIX ...
Page 12
... follows that if one knows an essence, one knows also that something with that essence exists in reality.14 Scholastic knowledge of essence is grounded on sensation in the following ways. First, the conception of an essence is taken from ...
... follows that if one knows an essence, one knows also that something with that essence exists in reality.14 Scholastic knowledge of essence is grounded on sensation in the following ways. First, the conception of an essence is taken from ...
Page 19
... follows the clear and distinct route of intellection and so grounds his 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 ...
... follows the clear and distinct route of intellection and so grounds his 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 ...
Page 20
... follows, guided only by what he understands clearly and 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 ...
... follows, guided only by what he understands clearly and 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 ...
Page 21
... follows a pattern of argument closely similar to that of Aquinas's Second Way. Using certain principles of causality, Descartes argues from the existence of a substance, the self, through the impossibility of an infinite regress in the ...
... follows a pattern of argument closely similar to that of Aquinas's Second Way. Using certain principles of causality, Descartes argues from the existence of a substance, the self, through the impossibility of an infinite regress in the ...
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