Divine Deception in Descartes’ Meditations

Descartes, Divine deception, First Meditation, Suare

Causalité de la raison et liberté chez Spinoza

This text investigates the relationship between human freedom and that of God in Spinoza. Human and divine freedom are understood univocally only within speculative science, in which adequate ideas of the human mind are the same ideas God entertains. On the other hand, knowledge of moral values in regard to practical action always implies a certain degree of inadequate knowledge of things and of oneself. Hence, God does not share moral values. Human mind itself, when it achieves the eternal dimension of adequate knowledge, is beyond practical virtues

La scoperta della simpatia. Dalla fisiologia alla socialità

In un classico studio, John P. Wright ha mostrato come la teoria humeana della simpatia si basi sulla diffusa penetrazione degli studi neurofisiologici iniziati con i lavori di Cartesio. In particolare, la neurofisiologia cartesiana, attraverso la filosofia dell’immaginazione di Malebranche, sarebbe stata all’origine della centralità del meccanismo associativo che domina la psicologia humeana1. Vorrei qui cercare di individuare le vie paradossali attraverso le quali la neurofisiologia cartesiana ha dato origine alla versione moderna dell’empatia utilizzata da Hume e mostrare come essa si sia costituita quale alternativa all’analisi hobbesiana dei meccanismi emotivi che sono alla base della coesione sociale

Spinoza muore

The Author presents the philosopher's theories on life, death, suicide and eternity of mind. The Author argues that the mind truly achieves a personal identity only in the dimension of eternit

"QUOD NESCIS QUOMODO FIAT, ID NON FACIS". OCCASIONALISM AGAINST DESCARTES?

The philosophical problem that is at the origin of the principle "Quod nescis quomodo fiat id non facis" originates in Galen's "De foetuum formatione". Important works of early modern philosophy, such as Campanella "Del senso delle cose e della magia", discuss Galen's text. Due to their rejection of teleology, Descartes' physics and biology are completely foreign to the "Quod nescis" principle

Les Septièmes Réponses, les devoirs du sceptique et le cercle

The seventh set of objections and replies is a rather neglected text in the studies on Descartes. Here, I aim to show that this text includes important cues and clues for identifying the Cartesian strategy in solving the skeptical doubt and dissolving the vicious circle

Descartes on Error and Madness

In the fourth Meditation, Descartes’ theory of error holds bad use of free will responsible for mistaken judgment. This theory turns out to be apposite only for an adult and sound human being. In infancy and if ill, the mind cannot suspend judgment, because its brain alteration necessarily dictates a judgment, often mistaken. The most dramatic case is madness, which necessarily induces the mind to make mistaken judgments beyond correction. Madness is not just an extreme case of false representation of the world. In the Dioptrique, madness is a crucial experiment for understanding the physiological mechanics of perception. This claim has the consequence of making it hard to distinguishing between madness and normality, and then between error and truth, as La Forge and Malebranche will realize.In the fourth Meditation, Descartes' theory of error holds bad use of free will responsible for mistaken judgment. This theory turns out to be apposite only for an adult and sound human being. In infancy and if ill, the mind cannot suspend judgment, because its brain alteration necessarily dictates a judgment, often mistaken. The most dramatic case is madness, which necessarily induces the mind to make mistaken judgments beyond correction. Madness is not just an extreme case of false representation of the world. In the Dioptrique, madness is a crucial experiment for understanding the physiological mechanics of perception. This claim has the consequence of making. it hard to distinguish between madness and normality, and then between error and truth, as La Forge and Malebranche will realize

Hume and Spinoza on the Relation of Cause and Effect

Spinoza's theory of the association of ideas provides the explanation about the origin of thinking that what follows has a necessary relation to what precedes it. As a consequence, Spinoza's theory of imaginative knowledge is at the origin of the famous analysis of tre relation of cause and effect in Hum