Descartes on Causation
OUP USA (2008)
| Abstract | This book is a systematic study of Descartes' theory of causation and its relation to the medieval and early modern scholastic philosophy that provides its proper historical context. The argument presented here is that even though Descartes offered a dualistic ontology that differs radically from what we find in scholasticism, his views on causation were profoundly influenced by scholastic thought on this issue. This influence is evident not only in his affirmation in the Meditations of the abstract scholastic axioms that a cause must contain the reality of its effects and that conservation does not differ in reality from creation, but also in the details of the accounts of body-body interaction in his physics, of mind-body interaction in his psychology, and of the causation that he took to be involved in free human action. In contrast to those who have read Descartes as endorsing the "occasionalist" conclusion that God is the only real cause, a central thesis of this study is that he accepted what in the context of scholastic debates regarding causation is the antipode of occasionalism, namely, the view that creatures rather than God are the causal source of natural change. What emerges from the defense of this interpretation of Descartes is a new understanding of his contribution to modern thought on causation. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Buy the book | $76.00 direct from Amazon (11% off) Amazon page | |||||||||
| ISBN(s) | 9780195327946 0195327942 | |||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,705 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesM. T. (2003). Cartesian Causation: Body-Body Interaction, Motion, and Eternal Truths. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 34 (4):737-762.
Jorge Secada (2000). Cartesian Metaphysics: The Late Scholastic Origins of Modern Philosophy. Cambridge University Press.
Helen Hattab (2000). The Problem of Secondary Causation in Descartes: A Response to Des Chene. Perspectives on Science 8 (2):93-118.
Peter K. Machamer, James E. McGuire & Justin Sytsma (2005). Knowing Causes: Descartes on the World of Matter. Philosophica 76.
Andrew R. Platt (2011). Divine Activity and Motive Power in Descartes's Physics. British Journal for the History of Philosophy 19 (4):623 - 646.
Helen Hattab (2007). Concurrence or Divergence? Reconciling Descartes's Physics with His Metaphysics. Journal of the History of Philosophy 45 (1):49-78.
Andrew Chignell (2009). Descartes on Sensation: A Defense of the Semantic-Causation Model. Philosophers' Imprint 9 (5):1-22.
Geoffrey Gorham (2004). Cartesian Causation: Continuous, Instantaneous, Overdetermined. Journal of the History of Philosophy 42 (4):389-423.
Catherine Wilson (2003). Descartes's Meditations: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press.
Jaegwon Kim (2000). How Can My Mind Move My Limbs? Mental Causation From Descartes to Contemporary Physicalism. Philosophic Exchange 30:5-16.
Paul Hoffman (2009). Essays on Descartes. Oxford University Press.
Julie Yoo, Mental Causation. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Stephen Philip Menn (1998). Descartes and Augustine. Cambridge University Press.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2012-01-31Total downloads6 ( #145,729 of 549,196 )Recent downloads (6 months)3 ( #25,790 of 549,196 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
