Obscurity and confusion: Nonreductionism in Descartes's biology and philosophy

Dissertation, Ghent University (2016)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Descartes is usually taken to be a strict reductionist, and he frequently describes his work in reductionist terms. This dissertation, however, makes the case that he is a nonreductionist in certain areas of his philosophy and natural philosophy. This might seem like simple inconsistency, or a mismatch between Descartes's ambitions and his achievements. I argue that here it is more than that: nonreductionism is compatible with his wider commitments, and allowing for irreducibles increases the explanatory power of his system. Moreover, Descartes depends on nonreductionist knowledge and on irreducibles in order to maintain his epistemology and metaphysics. That is, there is more in the Cartesian world than mind, matter, and God.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

    This entry is not archived by us. If you are the author and have permission from the publisher, we recommend that you archive it. Many publishers automatically grant permission to authors to archive pre-prints. By uploading a copy of your work, you will enable us to better index it, making it easier to find.

    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 101,773

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Descartes and the Dissolution of Life.Barnaby R. Hutchins - 2016 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 54 (2):155-173.
Descartes's Changing Mind.Peter Machamer & J. E. McGuire - 2009 - Princeton University Press. Edited by J. E. McGuire.
Descartes's Theory of Mind (review).Enrique Chávez-Arvizo - 2005 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 43 (1):116-117.
Cartesian reflections: essays on Descartes's philosophy.John Cottingham (ed.) - 2008 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The Role of Imagination in Descartes's "Meditations".Tracy Ann Scholl - 1999 - Dissertation, The University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Descartes and Epistemology With or Without God.Edwin Etieyibo - 2015 - Philosophia: International Journal of Philosophy (Philippine e-journal) 16 (1):65-86.
Self-knowledge in Descartes and Malebranche.Lawrence Nolan & John Whipple - 2005 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 43 (1):55-81.
The Breakdown of Cartesian Metaphysics.Richard A. Watson - 1987 - Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
Descartes’s changing mind.Peter Machamer & J. E. McGuire - 2006 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 37 (3):398-419.

Analytics

Added to PP
2016-05-31

Downloads
48 (#467,083)

6 months
8 (#629,124)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Barnaby R. Hutchins
University of Ghent

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Monism: The Priority of the Whole.Jonathan Schaffer - 2010 - Philosophical Review 119 (1):31-76.
The View from Nowhere.Thomas Nagel - 1986 - Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 92 (2):280-281.
The view from nowhere.Thomas Nagel - 1986 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 178 (2):221-222.
The View from Nowhere.Thomas Nagel - 1986 - Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 43 (2):399-403.

View all 62 references / Add more references