Descartes"s Changing Mind (ebook)

Argumento de Descartes"s Changing Mind (ebook)

Descartes's works are often treated as a unified, unchanging whole. But in Descartes's Changing Mind, Peter Machamer and J. E. McGuire argue that the philosopher's views, particularly in natural philosophy, actually change radically between his early and later works--and that any interpretation of Descartes must take account of these changes. The first comprehensive study of the most significant of these shifts, this book also provides a new picture of the development of Cartesian science, epistemology, and metaphysics.

No changes in Descartes's thought are more significant than those that occur between the major works The World (1633) and Principles of Philosophy (1644). Often seen as two versions of the same natural philosophy, these works are in fact profoundly different, containing distinct conceptions of causality and epistemology. Machamer and McGuire trace the implications of these changes and others that follow from them, including Descartes's rejection of the method of abstraction as a means of acquiring knowledge, his insistence on the infinitude of God's power, and his claim that human knowledge is limited to that which enables us to grasp the workings of the world and develop scientific theories.

"I believe that [Peter Machamer & J. E. McGuire] are to be commended for enabling us to take seriously the view that Descartes's opinions may have shifted in significant ways and for illustrating a different way to tell the story of the arc of Descartes's career."--Michael Della Rocca, Metascience

"Machamer and McGuire are thus to be congratulated for taking on the difficult task of providing a reading of Descartes's entire corpus, spanning over two decades and five completed works, that treats it as a dynamic progression, rather than a static system. In so doing, they pay careful attention to the historical chronology, the Scholastic background, Descartes's replies to his philosophical interlocutors, and the scholarship on issues central to Descartes's mature positions. The result is a rich and controversial story that always engages the reader even if it does not always convince."--Helen Hattab, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"Original and well-grounded in the texts, Descartes's Changing Mind offers a comprehensive interpretation of Cartesian science. It also tackles questions concerning our knowledge of the new world of Descartes's physics and the mind's relation to that world. Machamer and McGuire take into account Descartes's entire career, from the late 1620s to the time of the Principles, showing that on key issues he altered his views significantly."--Dennis Des Chene, Washington University in St. Louis

"This book's main argument--that Descartes's views on metaphysics and natural philosophy changed over time--is significant because Descartes rarely gives the impression that his views have changed and scholars often treat them as a single block. This is the first book to focus on Descartes's changing views, and it is welcome."--Roger Ariew, University of South Florida

"Machamer and McGuire painstakingly trace the development of Descartes' views on the means and extent of human knowledge as it relates to science and metaphysics. Beginning with a conception of knowledge as based on abstraction from sensory experience and as capable of delivering truths about the simple natures of things in his early work, Descartes, they argue, radically changes his mind about the powers and scope of the mind, arriving finally at a conception that relies heavily upon innate ideas and a limitation of humans' cognitive reach to a world that is suitably framed to their natures as mind-body unities."--Choice0Preface ix

CHAPTER ONE: From Method to Epistemology and from Metaphysics to the Epistemic Stance 1
Descartes's Early Work: The Rules 5
The World 14
The Discourse on Method 24

CHAPTER TWO: God and Efficient Causation 36
A Historical Preamble 37
God's Efficient Causation and the Introduction of Causa Secundum Esse 45
God, Time, and Continual Creation: The Emergence of Re-creationism 59
Causal Axioms and Common Notions 73

CHAPTER THREE: Seeing the Implications of His Causal Views: The Response to His Critics 82
God as Causa Sui: The High Tide of Descartes's Causalism 83
Eminent Containment, Transcendence, Divine Powers, and God's Causal Harmony 91
Epistemic Teleology 102

CHAPTER FOUR: Body-Body Causation and the Cartesian World of Matter 111
The Current Debate on Body-Body Causation 111
The Early Descartes 116
Cartesian Conservationism 119
Three Questions of Metaphysics: Principles Parts I and II 127
Mature Motion 134
The Place of Our Position in the Current Debate 157

CHAPTER FIVE: Mind, Intuition, Innateness, and Ideas 164
Intuition and Enumeration 165
Ideas and Descartes's New Theory of Mind 169
Innate Ideas 176
Innateness and Sensory Ideas 183
Innate Ideas: Present but Swamped 186
Innateness and Intellectual Memory 188
Common Notions, Eternal Truths, and Immutable Natures 193

CHAPTER SIX: Mind-Body Causality and the Mind-Body Union: The Case of Sensation 198
Sensation 199
The Physical Side of Perception 202
The Mental Side of Perception 209
How the Soul Moves the Body, or Mind-to-Body Causation 221
The Nature of the Distinction between Mind and Body 224
The Mind-Body (Soul-Body) Union 232
Epistemic Teleology and Dualism 239
References 243
Index 251