This is the first book-length study of Decartes' 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 skepticism, the theory of substance, and the dualism of mind and matter. His study offers a picture of Descartes' metaphysics that is both novel and philosophically illuminating.
Author(s): Jorge Secada
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 347
Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Preface......Page 11
Note about citations and translations......Page 12
Abbreviations......Page 14
Prologue......Page 15
Part I The unity of Cartesian metaphysics......Page 19
Cartesian essentialism and Scholastic existentialism......Page 21
The rationale of Scholastic existentialism......Page 24
The rationale of Cartesian essentialism I: the doctrine of substance, essence and mode......Page 27
The rationale of Cartesian essentialism II: knowledge, scepticism and the critique of the senses......Page 29
The essentialist order of the Meditations......Page 33
Descartes's education at the Jesuit school in La Flèche......Page 41
Descartes's reaction to Scholasticism......Page 44
Descartes's first thoughts on human knowledge......Page 47
Descartes's relation to scepticism......Page 52
Essentialism and scepticism......Page 55
The post-Cartesian epistemological philosophy......Page 60
The Church and the Crown: Descartes's project for a new system of knowledge......Page 63
Real essences......Page 69
Platonism......Page 73
Suárezian essences......Page 77
Descartes on essential necessity......Page 79
Scholastic and Cartesian definitions......Page 85
Part II Ideas and the road from essence to existence......Page 89
Cartesian ideas......Page 91
Objective reality and the causes of ideas......Page 94
The structure of mental acts......Page 97
Descartes's alleged direct realism......Page 100
The material falsity of ideas......Page 105
Arnauld's critique of the material falsity of ideas......Page 110
Descartes's rejoinder and its Scholastic background......Page 112
Innatism and the causality of ideas......Page 116
The intentionality of the soul......Page 122
Intellection, sensation and the world within the mind......Page 129
Gassendi, Suárez and Descartes on universals......Page 131
Gassendi and Suárez on abstraction......Page 133
The Cartesian doctrine of intellection......Page 137
Sensation and the perception of geometrical figures......Page 142
The reflection on the wax......Page 147
The structure and function of the Second Meditation......Page 153
Essentialism and the self......Page 157
Essentialism and Descartes's demonstrations of the existence of God......Page 162
Descartes's second causal demonstration......Page 165
Time, causality and infinite regress......Page 169
The essentialist structure of proofs of the existence of God......Page 175
The Second Way......Page 180
Simultaneity, dependence, universality and the hierarchy of causes......Page 182
Participation, essential causality and infinite regresses......Page 187
The essentialist criticism of the Five Ways......Page 191
Part III Cartesian substances......Page 195
Existence per se......Page 197
Descartes's two notions of substance......Page 199
Substance as subject of properties......Page 203
Descartes's distinctions: real, modal and conceptual......Page 208
Cartesian categories......Page 212
The substantial tension......Page 214
The essence of substances......Page 219
Individual essences......Page 220
Essences and modes......Page 224
The essence and the existence, duration and number of substances......Page 226
Descartes on essence and existence......Page 229
Suárez on essence and existence......Page 233
The eternity and reality of contingent essences......Page 240
The ontological argument and the distinction of reason between essence and existence......Page 244
The body and the minds......Page 250
The real distinction......Page 251
The body or extended substance......Page 256
Souls or the many thinking essences......Page 261
'This puzzling "I'''......Page 269
Cartesian essentialism confirmed......Page 272
Cartesian trialism or the union of body and soul......Page 273
Epilogue......Page 279
1 DESCARTES’S ESSENTIALIST METAPHYSICS......Page 284
2 SCEPTICISM, SCHOLASTICISM AND THE ORIGINS OF DESCARTES'S PHILOSOPHY......Page 287
3 CARTESIAN REAL ESSENCES......Page 294
4 IDEAS AND THE WORLD IN THE MIND......Page 297
5 MY WAX, MY INTELLECT AND I......Page 301
6 ESSENTIALISM AND THE EXISTENCE OF GOD......Page 305
7 THE SUBSTANTIAL TENSION......Page 308
8 THE ESSENCE AND THE EXISTENCE OF CARTESIAN SUBSTANCES......Page 313
9 THE REAL DISTINCTION OR THE BODY AND THE MINDS......Page 317
EPILOGUE......Page 320
References......Page 321
Index......Page 337
