Greg Detre
@10 on Thursday, 18 October, 2001
Dr K J Morris, Schools 4
�Meditations on First Philosophy� = metaphysics
Quine is a metaphysician, but he�s anti- scholastic metaphysics
metaphysics usually comes at the end, because it�s most abstract and general
it encompasses material/immaterial substances, being + non-being
Descartes inherited a whole load of concepts and principles from scholastic metaphysics, which he challenged in various ways
distinction between essence vs accident, essence vs existence
essence = in the absence of which the substance would not be what it is (�the substance is unintelligible� (Descartes))
to the scholastics, a living human being is a different substance than a corpse, since it�s lost its essence
a substance possesses its accidents in only a contingent way, and can lose any of its accidents
Descartes: thinking is an essential part of the soul � once a soul exists, it�s got to think
existence is viewed as an accident � can inquire into the essence of corporeal things before we look into their essence
the argument from dreaming calls all the accidents of corporeal things (shape, size motion etc.) other than existence, and other than their essence, into doubt
in Meditation II (On the nature of the human mind and corporeal things)
nature � means both:
�essence� (attached to kinds of things, not individuals)
�???
in Meditation III � metaphysical concepts are most prominent
degrees of reality
divides everything that�s real into substance and attribute � corresponds to scholastic logic
we still think that, but we have a different logic and a different metaphysics
we don�t see existence as a predicate, because it plays a different role in (Hodges�) Fregean logic
substance (res � �reality�) = (loose definition) needs only the concurrence of God to exist
degrees of reality are then degrees of substance
infinite substances (God � needs nothing else to exist), finite substances (need only God to exist) and accidents (need substances in order to exist)
reply: essential attributes, though, have the same
degree of reality as substances
reply: infinite substances contain all essential
attributes
the characteristic of beings of reason is that they involve comparisons
being able to see = a positive attribute
being blind in a human = a privation
not being able to see in a stone = a negation
what exactly is the analogy between blindness and error?
God is viewed as the author of being and everything that�s real � but privations are not substances, and so are not created by God
C&D perceptions do come from God, and so are true � depends on the concept of �degrees of reality�
God� existence, unlike any created thing, is part of his essence
reply: but existence is not an attribute (although in Descartes�s scheme, the only alternative is for it to be a substance)
perfection � it�s a greater perfection to exist both in reality and in the intellect, than to exist solely in the intellect � existence as a perfection is built into the system as part of �degrees of reality�
greater perfection to be undivided/indivisible than divided/divisible
no corporeal thing can be completely perfect
Meditation VI � modal/conceptual distinction vs real distinction
he�s been accused of misapplying leibniz�s law, but he�s not talking about whether they�re identical
leibniz law (if two things have different properties, then they�re not identical)
Descartes� subversive aims
his ideas were considered deeply dangerous
in �Background source material� (ed Cottingham) � contains official condemnations of Descartes�s doctrines, especially:
real accidents � accidents have the same degree of reality as modes, amounts to a rejection of the doctrine of real accidents (which held them to have a higher reality than modes) � Descartes felt that they obscured the scientific explanations, but that�s not what the theologians were objecting to (he thinks that the traditional trans-substantiation of the Eucharist is unintelligible, and unrequired by the Bible)
substantial forms � the rational soul used to be regarded as the form of the body
Descartes argued that the soul isn�t a form, but a substance � and then it becomes much more intelligible that God can keep the soul in existence after the body dies, but this requires him to redefine a great number of traditional scholastic metaphysical concepts
so what value are these scholastic concepts to us in the modern world??? if Descartes�s system is rooted in them, can it stand without (some of) them???