Pascal, Spinoza, and Defining Cartesianism
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One Hundred Years of Thomism Aeterni Patris and Afterwards a Symposium
One Hundred Years of Thomism Aeterni Patris and Afterwards A Symposium Edited By Victor B. Brezik, C.S.B, CENTER FOR THOMISTIC STUDIES University of St. Thomas Houston, Texas 77006 ~ NIHIL OBSTAT: ReverendJamesK. Contents Farge, C.S.B. Censor Deputatus INTRODUCTION . 1 IMPRIMATUR: LOOKING AT THE PAST . 5 Most Reverend John L. Morkovsky, S.T.D. A Remembrance Of Pope Leo XIII: The Encyclical Aeterni Patris, Leonard E. Boyle,O.P. 7 Bishop of Galveston-Houston Commentary, James A. Weisheipl, O.P. ..23 January 6, 1981 The Legacy Of Etienne Gilson, Armand A. Maurer,C.S.B . .28 The Legacy Of Jacques Maritain, Christian Philosopher, First Printing: April 1981 Donald A. Gallagher. .45 LOOKING AT THE PRESENT. .61 Copyright©1981 by The Center For Thomistic Studies Reflections On Christian Philosophy, All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or Ralph McInerny . .63 reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written Thomism And Today's Crisis In Moral Values, Michael permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in Bertram Crowe . .74 critical articles and reviews. For information, write to The Transcendental Thomism, A Critical Assessment, Center For Thomistic Studies, 3812 Montrose Boulevard, Robert J. Henle, S.J. 90 Houston, Texas 77006. LOOKING AT THE FUTURE. .117 Library of Congress catalog card number: 80-70377 Can St. Thomas Speak To The Modem World?, Leo Sweeney, S.J. .119 The Future Of Thomistic Metaphysics, ISBN 0-9605456-0-3 Joseph Owens, C.Ss.R. .142 EPILOGUE. .163 The New Center And The Intellectualism Of St. Thomas, Printed in the United States of America Vernon J. -
Augustine on Knowledge
Augustine on Knowledge Divine Illumination as an Argument Against Scepticism ANITA VAN DER BOS RMA: RELIGION & CULTURE Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Research Master Thesis s2217473, April 2017 FIRST SUPERVISOR: dr. M. Van Dijk SECOND SUPERVISOR: dr. dr. F.L. Roig Lanzillotta 1 2 Content Augustine on Knowledge ........................................................................................................................ 1 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ 4 Preface .................................................................................................................................................... 5 Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 7 The life of Saint Augustine ................................................................................................................... 9 The influence of the Contra Academicos .......................................................................................... 13 Note on the quotations ........................................................................................................................ 14 1. Scepticism ........................................................................................................................................ -
Divine Illumination As “Conditio Sine Qua Non” for True Knowledge in the Philosophy of St Augustine
DIVINE ILLUMINATION AS “CONDITIO SINE QUA NON” FOR TRUE KNOWLEDGE IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF ST AUGUSTINE Emmanuel OGUNDELE, PhD Introduction St. Augustine in many aspects of his philosophy was preoccupied with the issue of knowledge. This knowledge in the true sense is rather impossible to reach without the divine light which shines on us, for 'in His divine light we see light.' The beaming of the illuminating light of the creator who lives in unassailable light on us makes knowledge possible. For Augustine, true knowledge comes from within, through Divine illumination and not from without. This is theme that will be explored in this article. St. Augustine was born in Tagaste in 354 A.D. of a pagan father by the name Patricius and a devout Christian mother, Monica. His baptism and conversion into Christianity was delayed and he was eventually baptised in 387. He did higher studies first at Madaura and later at Carthage. At this time, he was still committed to Manichaeism. He later started teaching Rhetoric in Carthage and eventually opened a school of Rhetoric in Rome. After a while, he abandoned Manichaeism and scepticism and embraced Platonism. He had a riotous youthful life in which he lost his way into a life of sensuality. In 384 AD, he moved to Milan where he 1 2 met Bishop Ambrose who eventually baptised him on his conversion in 387 AD. His mother died in 388 AD, the year in which he returned to his homeland. In 391, the people of Hippo where he was staying in order to convert a friend acclaimed him a priest and he was finally ordained a priest by Bishop Valerius. -
Metaphysical Systems
Table of Contents Volume I - The Distant Past On ‘being’: Cartesianism - Passive Observation Introduction: Metaphysical system number three #1: The Error of Zeno Resolving the problem of Abstraction #2: The Error of Aristotle Resolving the problem of Cartesianism #3: The Error of Boethius Resolving the problem of Free Will #4: The Error of Copernicus Resolving the problem of Centricism $5: The Error of Leibniz Resolving the problem of Theodicy #6: The Error of Kant Resolving the problem of Universal Ethics Volume II - The Recent Past On ‘being’ being: Non-Cartesianism - Active Observation Preface to Volume II #7: The Error of Hegel Resolving the problem of non-Cartesianism $8: The Error of Einstein Resolving the problem of ‘i’ #9: The Error of Russell Resolving the problem of Non-Members #10: The Error of Heidegger Resolving the problem of The Void of a Void #11: The Error of Philosophy Resolving the problem of Either/Or #12: The Error of ‘being’ being Resolving the problem of Nihilism Volume III - The Future On ‘being’ being ‘Being’: Cartesianism ‘within’ Non-Cartesianism: Active Observation within Passive Observation Preface to Volume III #13: Metaphysical System 28 Introducing the problem of Metaphysical Systems 7 & 9 #14: Principle Three Introducing the problem of Principles One and Two #15: Ockham’s Razor Introducing the problem of Reductionism #16: Wrong Again Introducing the problem of Being Right #17: The Beginning Introducing the problem of The End #18: Why Now? Introducing the problem of History’s Vector Conclusion: The Peer -
Saint Bonaventure
Saint Bonaventure and the Entrance of God Falque Into Theology Saint Bonaventure Saint Bonaventure by Emmanuel Falque and Saint Bonaventure and the Entrance of God Into Theology Into God of Entrance the and Bonaventure Saint translated from French by Brain Lapsa and Sarah Horton The Entrance of God Revised by William C. Hackett Into Theology Properly original, the new version of this essay intends both to nourish debate and differentiate points of view. In its new articulation, the book justifies work that has been carried out since. It justifies the sense of Franciscan rootedness that has never been denied and at the same time opens to the discovery of another reading of the Dominican Thomas Aquinas. The preface specially composed for this American edition, the opening debate with famous medievalist Etienne Gilson, and above all the afterword entitled “Saint Thomas Aquinas and the entrance of God into Philosophy” make it a radically new book. Emmanuel Falque, Professor and honorary dean of philosophy at the Institut Catholique de Paris (ICP), is a philosopher of religion whose research and writing focuses on patristic and medieval philosophy, phenomenology and philosophy of religion. A graduate of the University of Paris IV (Sorbonne), he received his license in Catholic theology summa cum laude from the Centre Sèvres, a university level Jesuit institution in Paris, in 1993, then returned to the Sorbonne to study with Jean-Luc Marion and earned a Ph.D. in philosophy summa cum laude in 1998 and the title of full Professor in 2006. He erved as the 2015 Tipton Visiting Professor in Catholic Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and held the Gadamer Visiting Professorship Chair in 2016 (Boston College). -
Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations Spring 2010 Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection Jason Skirry University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History of Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Skirry, Jason, "Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection" (2010). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 179. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/179 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/179 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection Abstract This dissertation presents a unified interpretation of Malebranche’s philosophical system that is based on his Augustinian theory of the mind’s perfection, which consists in maximizing the mind’s ability to successfully access, comprehend, and follow God’s Order through practices that purify and cognitively enhance the mind’s attention. I argue that the mind’s perfection figures centrally in Malebranche’s philosophy and is the main hub that connects and reconciles the three fundamental principles of his system, namely, his occasionalism, divine illumination, and freedom. To demonstrate this, I first present, in chapter one, Malebranche’s philosophy within the historical and intellectual context of his membership in the French Oratory, arguing that the Oratory’s particular brand of Augustinianism, initiated by Cardinal Bérulle and propagated by Oratorians such as Andre Martin, is at the core of his philosophy and informs his theory of perfection. Next, in chapter two, I explicate Augustine’s own theory of perfection in order to provide an outline, and a basis of comparison, for Malebranche’s own theory of perfection. -
Farewell to Descartes
Out of Revolution AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WESTERN MAN De Te Fabula Narratur Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy 1938 NEW YORK WILLIAM MORROW AND COMPANY CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Farewell to Descartes THE YEAR OF HARVARD’S TERCENTENARY, 1936- 1937, WAS ALSO the tercentenary of a great intellectual event. Three hundred years ago the rational foundations of modern science were established. It was then that the “ W eltanschauung” which lies at the root of our modern universities was first put into a book. Its author had intended to write some comprehensive volumes under the proud title, L e M o n d e . But that philosopher, René Descartes, was dissuaded by religious dangers from publishing them in full, and limited his task to the famous Discours de la M é t h o d e . In it the great idealistic postulate of the “ C o g i t o e r g o s u m ” was formulated, and therewith the programme of man’s scientific conquest of nature. Descartes’ “Cogito ergo s u m ” opened the way to three hundred years of incredible sci entific progress. When Descartes came forward with his “wondrous strange” Discourse, the scholastic type of university had long since been in decay. He replaced the principles by which mediæval thought had been guided ever since Anselm’s “ Credo ut intel- lig a m , ” with his “ Cogito ergo sum.” Among the possible start ing points for our powers of reason, scholasticism had singled out man’s faith in the revealing power of God: Descartes sec onded it with his no less paradoxical faith in the rational char acter of existence and nature. -
Introduction
Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-86613-2 - Pierre Gassendi and the Birth of Early Modern Philosophy Antonia Lolordo Excerpt More information Introduction This book is bothaninterpretation of Gassendi’s central metaphysical, epistemological, and natural philosophical views and an advertisement for their philosophical and historical interest. Historians of seventeenth- century philosophy can usually tell you that Gassendi was an atomist, an empiricist,oramitigated skeptic, as well as an opponent of Aristotle and Descartes. They might add that he attempted to revive Epicureanism. However, few are likely to have any clear conception ofthe theses Gassendi articulates, the argumentsheoffers in their defense, or the systematic connections between them. This is an unfortunatesituation, and I aim to remedy it. There are at leasttwo reasons why those of us who are interested in early modern philosophy and natural philosophy need to know more about Gassendi. The first is widely recognized. Gassendi’s influence and the importance he was accorded by his peers and close contemporaries is unquestionable. Gassendi was a central figure in seventeenth-century philosophy and, as such, very importantfor the development of mod- ern philosophical thought. He knew and was known by such figures as Descartes and Hobbes and is importantfor understanding Leibniz, Locke, and Newton. Were one a seventeenth-century intellectual who found Cartesianism unacceptable, Gassendi’s philosophy was the obvi- ous alternative. Less well known, however, is the philosophical interest -
Divine Omnipotence in Descartes' Philosophy
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 6-2014 Divine Omnipotence In Descartes' Philosophy Alfredo Rodriguez Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/274 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE IN DESCARTES’ PHILOSOPHY BY ALFREDO RODRIGUEZ A master's thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, The City University of New York 2014 © 2014 Alfredo Rodriguez All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies in satisfaction of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts. Professor Douglas Lackey Date Thesis Adviser Professor Matthew K. Gold Date Executive Officer THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract Divine Omnipotence in Descartes’ Philosophy by Alfredo Rodriguez Adviser: Professor Douglas Lackey The present thesis explores various aspects of Rene Descartes’ doctrine of divine omnipotence within the context of his overall philosophy and with reference to his medieval heritage. This thesis shows that, contrary to his multiple and explicit statements that God’s power cannot be limited in any way, Descartes took a more nuanced position on divine omnipotence that incorporated aspects of the widely accepted medieval position that God’s goodness is a constraint on his power. -
Duns Scotus's Epistemic Argument Against Divine Illumination
Duns Scotus’s Epistemic Argument Against Divine Illumination⇤ Billy Dunaway University of Oxford Draft of 15 July 2015 0 Preliminaries When we don’t know something, often this is because we are at risk of forming a false belief. If an outside agent could eliminate this risk, then in such cases such a person could in principle change ignorance into knowledge simply by affecting our environment, broadly construed. To what extent is this possible? On some plausible epistemic assumptions, even an omnipotent God is not always in a position to rescue the non- knower. The context I will use for exploring these issues is a late medieval debate over divine illumination between Henry of Ghent and Duns Scotus. Roughly, the issue arises in the following form: both Henry and Scotus agree on the fairly point that beliefs that are at risk of being false aren’t knowledge. Henry thinks that this condition applies to all of our beliefs formed with materials provided by purely natural processes. He takes this to be an argument for the conclusion that a kind of divine illumination occurs: we avoid ignorance only because God intervenes and illuminates our minds with materials that aren’t susceptible to such risks. But Scotus replies that illumination isn’t the answer to Henry’s sceptical worries. If the initial worry about the risks involved in our natural sensory powers was sound, then adding illumination picture does nothing to eliminate these risks. This I will call Scotus’s “epistemic argument” against divine illumination. Although I will explore the issue of the ways in which epistemic risk can be eliminated in this medieval context, the issue is not merely a historical ⇤Thanks to John Hawthorne for discussion of some of the issues covered in this paper. -
The Concept of Heresy and the Debates on Descartes's Philosophy
Church History Church History and and Religious Culture 100 (2020) 172–186 Religious Culture brill.com/chrc The Concept of Heresy and the Debates on Descartes’s Philosophy Aza Goudriaan Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and ETF Leuven, Leuven, Belgium [email protected] Abstract This article explores connotations of ‘heresy’ in theological traditions before and dur- ing Descartes’s life. Lutheran and Reformed Protestants, themselves considered heretics by the Church of Rome, adopted the patristic heresiology while designat- ing sixteenth-century antitrinitarian and Anabaptist teachings as heresies. Francisco Suárez and Gisbertus Voetius knew the late medieval conceptuality (e.g., Council of Konstanz, 1418). Voetius possibly thought of Descartes when describing certain philo- sophical views as “smacking of heresy.” This was not, however, an outright charge of heresy. In fact, Descartes’s readiness to be corrected contradicted the traditional hereti- cal quality of “stubbornness.” Plempius’s expression “Cartesian heresy” seems to have been rare. For anti-Cartesians, the rich vocabulary of error made the complex term ‘heresy’ easily avoidable. Keywords heresy – René Descartes – confessions of faith – Francisco Suárez – Gisbertus Voetius – Vopiscus Fortunatus Plempius – Jacques Bénigne Bossuet 1 Introduction In modern historiography,the concept of heresy is occasionally being used with regard to representatives of the new philosophies of the early modern period. Steven Nadler, for example, published a study of Spinoza’s Heresy: Immortality and the Jewish Mind and, more recently, together with Ben Nadler he wrote a © aza goudriaan, 2020 | doi:10.1163/18712428-10002001 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NCDownloaded4.0 license. -
RENÉ DESCARTES (1596-1650) Author: (W.W.; X.) = William Wallace (1844-1897) Encyclopedia Britannica (New York 1911) Vol
RENÉ DESCARTES (1596-1650) Author: (W.W.; X.) = William Wallace (1844-1897) Encyclopedia Britannica (New York 1911) vol. 8: 79-90. Electronic Text edited, modernized & paginated by Dr Robert A. Hatch© DESCARTES, RENÉ (1596-1650), French philosopher, was born at La Haye, in Touraine, midway between Tours and Poitiers, on the 31st of March 1596, and died at Stockholm on the 11th of February 1650. The house where he was born is still shown, and a métairie about 3 miles off retains the name of Les Cartes. His family on both sides was of Poitevin descent. Joachim Descartes, his father, having purchased a commission as counsellor in the parlement of Rennes, introduced the family into that demi-noblesse of the robe which, between the bourgeoisie and the high nobility, maintained a lofty rank in French society. He had three children, a son who afterwards succeeded to his father in the parlement, a daughter who married a M. du Crevis, and René, after whose birth the mother died. Descartes, known as Du Perron, from a small estate destined for his inheritance, soon showed an inquisitive mind. From 1604 to 1612 he studied at the school of La Flèche, which Henry IV. had lately founded and endowed for the Jesuits. He enjoyed exceptional privileges; his feeble health excused him from the morning duties, and thus early he acquired the habit of reflection in bed, which clung to him throughout life. Even then he had begun to distrust the authority of tradition and his teachers. Two years before he left school he was selected as one of the twenty-four who went forth to receive the heart of Henry IV.