Abstract

The point of departure of this paper is a critical reconsideration of the debate on the concept of realitas obiectiva in the First Objections and Replies in Descartes’s Meditations on First Philosophy. The aim of the paper is, on the one side, to stress the role played by Descartes in the formulation of the modern concept of ‘reality’ and, on the other side, to inquire into the role that the Cartesian thought could have played in the historical formulation of the concept of intentionality too. Moving from this general perspective, the paper offers a description of the ontology of the ideal contents given by Descartes in his Meditations; then, it tries to clarify the relationship between this ontology and the doctrine of the intentionality; finally, it proposes an overall interpretation of the fundamental debate between Descartes and Caterus. The point is that the Cartesian doctrine of the realitas obiectiva marked a decisive step in the long history of the intentionality in so far as it stimulated a reflection on the ‘reality’ of the intentional objects considered as contained in the ideas