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Descartes's Theory of Ideas

By David Clemenson

Descartes's Theory of Ideas Philosophy

Descartes's Theory of Ideas

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Description
Descartes held that only ideas are immediately perceived, and that all ideas are really identical to mental states. Yet certain passages in the Meditations seem to assert that some extramental individuals -- the sun, for example, or a piece of wax -- can be immediately perceived (not by the senses, but by the intellect). If so then Descartes was committed to the seemingly absurd claim that extramental things can be really identical to mental states. But the claim is not absurd; as this book shows, it is based on a coherent doctrine of intentional representation that was taught at the Jesuit college of La Flèche that Descartes attended as a youth. On this doctrine, an individual that is outside the mind with one sort of being can be inside it with another. This book brings a fresh perspective to the currently deadlocked debate over whether Descartes was a representationalist or a direct realist, and sheds new light on his difficult notions of material falsity and the self-representational character of thought. 
Product details
Edition:
1
Number of Pages:
176
Release Date:
2007-07-03
Publication Date:
2007-05-03
Publisher:
Bloomsbury 3PL
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
0826487734
ISBN13:
9780826487735
Weight:
435 g
Height:
161 cm
Width:
240 cm
Thickness:
14 cm
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