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 13
... mode We turn now to Descartes's essentialist reply to these Scholastic existentialist considerations. Let us begin with the Cartesian attack on the view that someone might know that a ... modes as 13 Descartes's essentialist metaphysics 13.
... mode We turn now to Descartes's essentialist reply to these Scholastic existentialist considerations. Let us begin with the Cartesian attack on the view that someone might know that a ... modes as 13 Descartes's essentialist metaphysics 13.
Page 14
... modes as ways of being of the one essential attribute of the substance to which they belong. He conceived substances as existing determinable essences, and he took their non-essential real properties to be determinates of these essences ...
... modes as ways of being of the one essential attribute of the substance to which they belong. He conceived substances as existing determinable essences, and he took their non-essential real properties to be determinates of these essences ...
Page 15
... mode can afford but a partial grounding of his essentialist dependence thesis . There are other non - essential descriptions of a substance apart from those cast in terms of its intrinsic accidents or modes ( for example , descriptions ...
... mode can afford but a partial grounding of his essentialist dependence thesis . There are other non - essential descriptions of a substance apart from those cast in terms of its intrinsic accidents or modes ( for example , descriptions ...
Page 17
... modes of thought , sensations are the objects of clear and distinct intellectual self - awareness . But their proper objects , ' pain and pleasure , light , colours , sounds , smells , tastes , heat , hardness and the other tactile ...
... modes of thought , sensations are the objects of clear and distinct intellectual self - awareness . But their proper objects , ' pain and pleasure , light , colours , sounds , smells , tastes , heat , hardness and the other tactile ...
Page 24
... modes of thought. When I 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 ...
... modes of thought. When I 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 ...
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