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
Results 1-5 of 68
Page 3
... human beings. It is against such shared understanding, the expected result of a shared nature placed in a shared world, that differences of culture, let alone speculative theory, can take place. Historiographers should exercise care ...
... human beings. It is against such shared understanding, the expected result of a shared nature placed in a shared world, that differences of culture, let alone speculative theory, can take place. Historiographers should exercise care ...
Page 11
... humans can know an essence is possible only by knowing it is actual. Aquinas and Suárez distinguished the accounts of impossible beings from the expressions of real or ... human being can know that 11 Descartes's essentialist metaphysics 11.
... humans can know an essence is possible only by knowing it is actual. Aquinas and Suárez distinguished the accounts of impossible beings from the expressions of real or ... human being can know that 11 Descartes's essentialist metaphysics 11.
Page 12
The Scholastic Origins of Modern Philosophy Jorge Secada. only way in which a human being can know that something is a real or possible essence is by knowing that it is actually given in reality. As St Thomas puts it: 'A thing is not ...
The Scholastic Origins of Modern Philosophy Jorge Secada. only way in which a human being can know that something is a real or possible essence is by knowing that it is actually given in reality. As St Thomas puts it: 'A thing is not ...
Page 13
... human beings know this world of eternal forms only sensorially and through its contingent and mutable realization in creatures. The Scholastic conception of natural kinds and their science which I have sketched above leaves no room for ...
... human beings know this world of eternal forms only sensorially and through its contingent and mutable realization in creatures. The Scholastic conception of natural kinds and their science which I have sketched above leaves no room for ...
Page 14
... human being, without it being true that we thereby know its nature. Descartes would disagree, yet his views on substance and its properties seem counter-intuitive, far removed from common sense and the Aristotelian Scholastic doctrines ...
... human being, without it being true that we thereby know its nature. Descartes would disagree, yet his views on substance and its properties seem counter-intuitive, far removed from common sense and the Aristotelian Scholastic doctrines ...
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 |
Other editions - View all
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