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 19
... 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 demonstration from premisses which include a ...
... 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 demonstration from premisses which include a ...
Page 20
... souls other than the self. Though I will keep other texts in mind, I shall refer more closely to the Meditations. We will begin with some remarks about the order and structure of this work and consequently of the Cartesian metaphysics ...
... souls other than the self. Though I will keep other texts in mind, I shall refer more closely to the Meditations. We will begin with some remarks about the order and structure of this work and consequently of the Cartesian metaphysics ...
Page 22
... soul perceives its immediate object, an actually existing mind, as actually existing. In the case of self-knowledge Descartes grants the existentialist dependence thesis. Yet we should not lose sight of the differences that separate him ...
... soul perceives its immediate object, an actually existing mind, as actually existing. In the case of self-knowledge Descartes grants the existentialist dependence thesis. Yet we should not lose sight of the differences that separate him ...
Page 23
... soul or substance; it involves a bodily act only occasionally.28 The Scholastic soul, furthermore, is not properly a substance but the form of a substance. Its nature or character is not, even when taken generally, to think; and when ...
... soul or substance; it involves a bodily act only occasionally.28 The Scholastic soul, furthermore, is not properly a substance but the form of a substance. Its nature or character is not, even when taken generally, to think; and when ...
Page 24
... soul is not known even after careful examination, let alone simple self-consciousness. For Descartes, on the con- trary, self-awareness reveals not only the existence of the soul but also its nature. He abides by the essentialist ...
... soul is not known even after careful examination, let alone simple self-consciousness. For Descartes, on the con- trary, self-awareness reveals not only the existence of the soul but also its nature. He abides by the essentialist ...
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