Life and works -- Cartesian doubt -- Cogito ergo sum -- Sum res cogitans -- Ideas -- The idea of god -- The ontological argument -- Reason and intuition -- Matter and motion zoo -- Mind and body.

Compatibilism is the doctrine that the doctrine of determinism is logically consistent with the doctrine of libertarianism. Determinism is the doctrine that every being and event is brought about by causes other than itself. Libertarianism is the doctrine that some human actions are free. Was Descartes a compatibilist? There is no doubt that he was a libertarian: his works are full of professions of freedom, human as well as divine. And though he held that God has no cause other than (...) himself, Descartes thought that everything apart from God is externally caused: he was a determinist with respect to the created universe. So it appears, assuming him consistent with himself, that Descartes must have been a compatibilist. And indeed, there are passages in his writings in which he appears explicitly to affirm that he is. Since both Descartes’s libertarianism and his determinism are complex doctrines, however, his view of the relation between them is complex as well. (shrink)

How are we to understand philosophical claims about sense perception being direct versus indirect? There are multiple relevant notions of perceptual directness, so I argue. Perception of external objects may be direct on some notions, while indirect on others. My interest is with the sense in which ideas count as perceptual mediators in the philosophy of Descartes and Locke. This paper has two broader aims. The first is to clarify four main notions of perceptual directness. The second is to support (...) my contention that in the texts characterizing ideas as immediate objects of perception, Descartes and Locke are invoking the notion of directness I call ‘objectual’. This notion is modeled on the way a picture mediates perception of the pictured object. The upshot of my account is that – with respect to the objectual notion of directness – Descartes and Locke each hold an indirect theory of perception. (shrink)

In the Principles of Philosophy, Descartes makes a remarkable claim that has never received the proper recognition it deserves. He asserts that there is merely a "rational distinction" between a substance and each of its attributes. I argue that, properly understood, this claim means that a substance and each of its attributes are numerically identical in reality, and distinguished only within our thought by means of reason. I then use this central insight to resolve a number of apparent inconsistencies and (...) interpretive puzzles that have plagued Descartes' philosophy. ;The most important of these problems concerns Descartes' theory of essences. In the Fifth Meditation, Descartes claims that certain objects such as geometrical figures have "true and immutable natures or essences" that do not depend on the mind, yet have being even if there are no such things existing in the world. On the basis of this statement, a number of influential scholars have concluded that Descartes is a Platonist regarding essences and in the philosophy of mathematics. One problem with this seemingly natural reading is that it contradicts the conceptualist, anti-realist strain that one finds in his other works. I enlist the theory of rational distinction to show decisively that Descartes is a conceptualist regarding essences and all universals. ;The theory of rational distinction illuminates several other features of Descartes' ontology as well--including the status of attributes and their distinction from modes, the notion of substance, the relation between essence and existence, the nature of space, the doctrine of divine simplicity, and the notion of a principal attribute. ;My central thesis also reveals that the so-called ontological "argument" is not a formal proof but the assertion of an intuition akin to the Cogito. I confirm this interpretation by investigating a poorly understood method called "analysis" employed in the Meditations. Descartes holds that the greatest impediments to knowledge are various philosophical prejudices that obscure and confound our innate ideas, particularly our innate idea of God. Analysis is the method for dispelling these prejudices. Once they are removed, God's existence is more self-evident than the simplest mathematical truth. (shrink)

This collection of fourteen essays, all published here for the first time, offers a stimulating reassessment of the central theme of Descartes's metaphysics. The first section examines Descartes's place in the history of philosophy and his unique influence in shaping the nature of philosophical enquiry. The central sections of the book cover the Cartesian doctrine of substance, the place of God in Descartes's philosophy, and his views on the relationship between reason and will. A concluding section examines the problematice role (...) of sensory awaremess om Descartes's account of our knowledge of ourselves and the world around us, and the implication of that account for an understanding of our nature as human beings. The volume is edited by John Cottingham, a leading authority on Descartes, whose introduction provides a clear overview of the issues addressed. The distinguished international team of contributors includes some of the best-known names in Descartes scholarship. (shrink)