Descartes's Changing Mind

Princeton University Press (2009)
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Abstract

Descartes's works are often treated as a unified, unchanging whole. But in Descartes's Changing Mind, Peter Machamer and J. E. McGuire argue that the philosopher's views, particularly in natural philosophy, actually change radically between his early and later works--and that any interpretation of Descartes must take account of these changes. The first comprehensive study of the most significant of these shifts, this book also provides a new picture of the development of Cartesian science, epistemology, and metaphysics. No changes in Descartes's thought are more significant than those that occur between the major works The World and Principles of Philosophy. Often seen as two versions of the same natural philosophy, these works are in fact profoundly different, containing distinct conceptions of causality and epistemology. Machamer and McGuire trace the implications of these changes and others that follow from them, including Descartes's rejection of the method of abstraction as a means of acquiring knowledge, his insistence on the infinitude of God's power, and his claim that human knowledge is limited to that which enables us to grasp the workings of the world and develop scientific theories.

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Descartes's Changing Mind.Peter K. Machamer - 2009 - Princeton University Press. Edited by J. E. McGuire.
Chapter five. Mind, intuition, innateness, and ideas.J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer - 2009 - In J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer (eds.), Descartes's Changing Mind. Princeton University Press. pp. 164-197.
Index.J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer - 2009 - In J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer (eds.), Descartes's Changing Mind. Princeton University Press. pp. 251-258.
Contents.J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer - 2009 - In J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer (eds.), Descartes's Changing Mind. Princeton University Press.
Preface.J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer - 2009 - In J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer (eds.), Descartes's Changing Mind. Princeton University Press.
References.J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer - 2009 - In J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer (eds.), Descartes's Changing Mind. Princeton University Press. pp. 243-250.
Chapter two. God and efficient causation.J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer - 2009 - In J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer (eds.), Descartes's Changing Mind. Princeton University Press. pp. 36-81.
Chapter six. Mind-body causality and the mind-body union: The case of sensation.J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer - 2009 - In J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer (eds.), Descartes's Changing Mind. Princeton University Press. pp. 198-242.
Chapter three. Seeing the implications of his causal views: The response to his critics.J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer - 2009 - In J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer (eds.), Descartes's Changing Mind. Princeton University Press. pp. 82-110.
Chapter one. From method to epistemology and from metaphysics to the epistemic stance.J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer - 2009 - In J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer (eds.), Descartes's Changing Mind. Princeton University Press. pp. 1-35.
THE SUBSTANCE-ATTRIBUTES RELATIONSHIP IN CARTESIAN DUALISM.Françoise Monnoyeur - 2018 - Journal of Philosophical Research 43:177-189.
The Substance-attributes Relationship in Cartesian Dualism.Françoise Monnoyeur - 2018 - Journal of Philosophical Research 43:177-189.
Chapter four. Body-body causation and the cartesian world of matter.J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer - 2009 - In J. E. McGuire & Peter Machamer (eds.), Descartes's Changing Mind. Princeton University Press. pp. 111-163.
Peter Machamer and J. E. McGuire. Descartes’s Changing Mind. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009. Pp. xi+258. $39.50. [REVIEW]Mary Domski - 2011 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 1 (1):162-165.

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Author Profiles

Peter Machamer
University of Pittsburgh

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THE SUBSTANCE-ATTRIBUTES RELATIONSHIP IN CARTESIAN DUALISM.Françoise Monnoyeur - 2018 - Journal of Philosophical Research 43:177-189.

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