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 3
... reasons can engage the reason of the present. This book partakes of those assumptions; yet it is inspired also by Charles Taylor's remark that 'historical retrieval is . . . important' when we want to free ourselves from some 'picture ...
... reasons can engage the reason of the present. This book partakes of those assumptions; yet it is inspired also by Charles Taylor's remark that 'historical retrieval is . . . important' when we want to free ourselves from some 'picture ...
Page 18
... reasons that have led them to trust their senses', they 'acquire the habit of no longer placing too much trust in them'. Descartes stresses that 'this is a prerequisite for perceiving the certainty that belongs to metaphysical things ...
... reasons that have led them to trust their senses', they 'acquire the habit of no longer placing too much trust in them'. Descartes stresses that 'this is a prerequisite for perceiving the certainty that belongs to metaphysical things ...
Page 21
... reasons to show that any causal proof of God requires knowledge of His essence. The first is that without knowledge of the possibility of a necessary being we cannot know that the series of causes is not infinite. The second reason ...
... reasons to show that any causal proof of God requires knowledge of His essence. The first is that without knowledge of the possibility of a necessary being we cannot know that the series of causes is not infinite. The second reason ...
Page 32
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Page 33
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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