Rustle in the Bush

Yo:

Cartesian rationalistic metaphysics: Clear and Distinct conception as the criterion of reality – – – > Denies Aristotle and hylomorphism

Letter to Mersenne, 30 Sep. 1640:

“The princple aim of my metaphysics is to show which are the things that can be directly conceived”

So, clear and distinct perception {Comes from the intellect as a separate faculty (To be introduced as Natural Light/Innate Ideas).

Cartesian/Aristotelian Physics::

Aris – Events in the physical world modeled after biology. The fact of the organism is its form (End/Essence). Form will explain essence and therefore telos

Knowledge that equals the knowledge of causes (First mover ensures no regress for his empirical method). Aristotle’s 4 causes

1. Formal – Effectively, ‘shape’ of statue
2. Final – End for which the statue was made
3. Material – Marble
4. Efficient – Initiates process of making (Techne) artisan

Aristotle then applied these principles to physics:

a) All natural motion is directed toward an end. Motion is the development of a state of potentiality into actuality (I.e. Actualization of form)

b) There are 4 kinds of matter. (Fire, Earth, Water, Air) And so they therefore have different telos – Earth + Water move downward….. Air+Fire move upward

Descartes Physics:

1. If there is no particular form for every’thing’, general laws become simpler and fewer
2. Only quantitative physical explanations (Beginnings of Modern Mechanics)
3. Denial of teleoligcal explanations beacuse they:

a) They presuppose knowledge of God (His Telos; therefore his plan)

b) Explanations of forms and essences don’t wor for this new view of physics (Upward/Downward nonsense in b above for Aris. physics).

Descartes following this is going to set up his “Discourse on Method”:

‘Good sense” bons sens, Reason dominates all men, most are inefficient and use it poorly. Good sense also distinguishes true from false.

Part 1 and The first part of Part 2 detail how Descartes has acknowledged the fallibility of even learned men. A ‘new’ discovery of method has to be able to adapt with the growth of thought direct towards helping knowledge.

Method itself:

1. Never accept what is not evident ‘Only what is clear and distinct in the mind’
2. Divide it into as many parts as you possibly needs to
3. Start to order this knowledge (2) with < Simple Objects> -> <Build up by degrees> -> <Draw causal inferences>
4. Review

Professors notes out it this way -rafaella dermas Descartes/locke mind scholar-

“1) Nothing should be accepted as true unless it is so clearly and distinctly
understood that there could be no occasion to doubt it. We should withhold
assent to any proposition that can be doubted (methodic doubt).
(2) One should divide each of the problems into as many parts as possible in order
to make the solutions of these problems easier. From Rules for the Direction
of the Mind: “We shall observe this method exactly if we reduce […] obscure
propositions step by step those which are simpler” (method of analysis)
(3) One should conduct one’s thoughts in an orderly way, viz., by starting with
the simple and then proceeding to knowledge of the most composite things
(method of synthesis)
(4) One should always make enumerations and reviews in order to make sure that
nothing has been omitted.”

And Spinoza says it like this in his ‘Principles of Cartesian Philosophy’:

” Descartes was compelled:

1. To lay aside all prejudices.
2. To find the fundamental truth on which all knowledge rests.
3. To discover the cause of error.
4. To understand everything clearly and distinctly.”

Spinoza notes he does the first three through his methodological doubt, and then he erects his foundation on the method mentioned above.

To wrap up it is these differnce sin physics, epistemology, and thod that seperate him from the Schoalastics in 4 notable ways:

1. Rejection of Aristotle’s 4 causes
2. Rejection of the notion of substantial form. The new primary quality of body is the extension (Not the hylomorphic model), and motion is a mode of extended substnce, not the essense of different kinds of substance or matter
3. Rejects substantial forms
4. Empiricist Epistemology (Knowledge of God through his works, only through the intellect)