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 11
... mind can fashion what has not, in any way, been sensed. But they believed that whatever the intellect conceives is taken from what the senses have provided, either because it is given to the senses in some way or because it is formed by ...
... mind can fashion what has not, in any way, been sensed. But they believed that whatever the intellect conceives is taken from what the senses have provided, either because it is given to the senses in some way or because it is formed by ...
Page 16
... mind . ... Descartes acknowledged that apart from providing him with an opportunity for their refutation , the introduction of sceptical arguments in the Meditations served him ' partly to prepare my readers ' minds for the ...
... mind . ... Descartes acknowledged that apart from providing him with an opportunity for their refutation , the introduction of sceptical arguments in the Meditations served him ' partly to prepare my readers ' minds for the ...
Page 17
... mind and body ( AT , VIII - 1 , 23 ) . Consider a feeling of pain . From such feeling the mind knows that the body is in a certain state . Though the pain does not represent the state the body is in , it is an effect of the bodily state ...
... mind and body ( AT , VIII - 1 , 23 ) . Consider a feeling of pain . From such feeling the mind knows that the body is in a certain state . Though the pain does not represent the state the body is in , it is an effect of the bodily state ...
Page 18
... mind away from the senses and of directing it towards pure intellectual perception, with which it can uncover the clear and distinct grounds of all knowledge. The Cartesian way to knowledge starts with the unveiling of a world of ...
... mind away from the senses and of directing it towards pure intellectual perception, with which it can uncover the clear and distinct grounds of all knowledge. The Cartesian way to knowledge starts with the unveiling of a world of ...
Page 19
... mind. The inner furnishings of the soul provide what is needed to know the essence of all the natural kinds which humans can know. Since in some cases knowledge of the existence of a substance is obtained by relatively complex ...
... mind. The inner furnishings of the soul provide what is needed to know the essence of all the natural kinds which humans can know. Since in some cases knowledge of the existence of a substance is obtained by relatively complex ...
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