Concurrence or divergence? Reconciling Descartes's physics with his metaphysics

Journal of the History of Philosophy 45 (1):49-78 (2007)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

: This paper interprets Descartes's use of the Scholastic doctrine of divine concurrence in light of contemporaneous sources, and argues against two prevailing occasionalist interpretations. On the first occasionalist reading God's concurrence or cooperation with natural causes is always mediate (i.e., concurrence reduces to God's continual recreation of substances). The second reading restricts God's immediate concurrence to his co-action with minds. This paper shows that Descartes's metaphysical commitments do not necessitate either form of occasionalism, and that he is more plausibly and charitably read as appropriating elements of Scholastic views on concurrence to bridge the gap between his metaphysics and physics

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 107,376

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Divine Activity and Motive Power in Descartes's Physics.Andrew R. Platt - 2011 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 19 (4):623 - 646.
Leibniz on Constant Creation and Divine Concurrence.Laura A. Mcalinden - 2004 - Dissertation, The University of Wisconsin - Madison
Ockham on Divine Concurrence.Zita Toth - 2019 - Saint Anselm Journal 15:81-105.
Malebranche and occasionalism: A reply to Steven Nadler.Desmond M. Clarke - 1995 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 33 (3):499-504.
Divine Conservation, Concurrence, and Occasionalism.Edward Ryan Moad - 2018 - International Philosophical Quarterly 58 (2):209-225.
Leibniz on Divine Concurrence.John Whipple - 2010 - Philosophy Compass 5 (10):865-879.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
152 (#160,630)

6 months
26 (#137,497)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Helen Hattab
University of Houston

Citations of this work

How Newton Solved the Mind-Body Problem.Geoffrey A. Gorham - 2011 - History of Philosophy Quarterly 28 (1):21-44.
Mechanism: Mathematical Laws.Tzuchien Tho - 2020 - Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Force (God) in Descartes' physics.Gary C. Hatfield - 1979 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 10 (2):113-140.

Add more references