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 2
... similar views regard- ing the nature of existence and its relation to essence, the reality of merely possible essences, and the Divine underpinnings of necessity in nature. When Descartes put forward his innovative doctrine of ideas, he ...
... similar views regard- ing the nature of existence and its relation to essence, the reality of merely possible essences, and the Divine underpinnings of necessity in nature. When Descartes put forward his innovative doctrine of ideas, he ...
Page 7
... similar passages . Some have noted that here Descartes is opposing ' the School'.1 But then they have discarded the texts without further consideration , or they have discussed them in passing and exclusively with reference to proofs of ...
... similar passages . Some have noted that here Descartes is opposing ' the School'.1 But then they have discarded the texts without further consideration , or they have discussed them in passing and exclusively with reference to proofs of ...
Page 14
... similar relation to the essences of the substances to which they belong; they are not deter- minates of a determinable nature. That something is a featherless biped does not entail that it is a rational animal. We could understand the ...
... similar relation to the essences of the substances to which they belong; they are not deter- minates of a determinable nature. That something is a featherless biped does not entail that it is a rational animal. We could understand the ...
Page 17
... similar situation arises when we deal with sensation of objects common to the intellect and the senses , objects which , like size , shape and movement , may be both sensed and understood . Descartes stresses that even in such cases the ...
... similar situation arises when we deal with sensation of objects common to the intellect and the senses , objects which , like size , shape and movement , may be both sensed and understood . Descartes stresses that even in such cases the ...
Page 21
... 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 series of its causes, to the existence ...
... 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 series of its causes, to the existence ...
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