Suárez on the Metaphysics of Habits

We often experience that we have ideas in our mind, which present possible things and incite us to produce some of them. But how can our ideas be intentional? And how can they give rise to actions? In his theory of exemplar causes, Suárez examines both problems and offers a comprehensive theory. The paper first discusses his solution to the intentionality problem, arguing that he subscribes to an act theory, according to which ideas are mental acts that are about something in virtue of their specific content. The paper then reconstructs his solution to the causation problem, showing that he appeals to efficient causation: ideas are powers and hence efficient causes that immediately produce other acts, thereby triggering the production of material things. The analysis of both problems sheds light on Suárez’s broader theory of cognitive activity by showing that he takes mental acts to be intrinsically intentional and productive.

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Descartes's Method

Dika

2023

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Descartes’s Method: The Formation of the Subject of Science provides a systematic interpretation of Descartes’s method in Rules for the Direction of the Mind and related texts. The book reconstructs Descartes’s method in its entirety and concretely demonstrates both the efficacy of the method in the sciences as well as the unity of the method from Rules for the Direction of the Mind (1620s) to Principles of Philosophy (1644). The principal thesis of the book is that Descartes’s method is a problem-solving cognitive disposition (or habitus) that can be actualized in a variety of well-defined ways, depending always on the nature of problem. The book divides into five parts and eleven chapters. Parts I–II (Chapters 1–4) develop an interpretation of the historical and conceptual foundations of Descartes’s method (its operations and acquisition), while the remainder of the book (Parts III–V, which include Chapters 5–11) demonstrates the fruits of the method in solutions to problems in the sciences (above all, mathematics and optics).

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Suárez on the Metaphysics of Habits

Cited by 25 publications

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Productive Thoughts

Descartes's Method

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