Representation and scepticism from Aquinas to Decartes / Han Thomas Adriaenssen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Adriaenssen, Han Thomas, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Representation (Philosophy).

Skepticism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 279 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Summary:

In this book Han Thomas Adriaenssen offers the first comparative exploration of the sceptical reception of representationalism in medieval and early modern philosophy. Descartes is traditionally credited with inaugurating a new kind of scepticism by saying that the direct objects of perception are images in the mind, not external objects, but Adriaenssen shows that as early as the thirteenth century, critics had already found similar problems in Aquinas's theory of representation. He charts the attempts of philosophers in both periods to grapple with these problems, and shows how in order to address the challenges of scepticism and representation, modern philosophers in the wake of Descartes often breathed new life into old ideas, remoulding them in ways that we are just beginning to understand. His book will be valuable for historians interested in the medieval background to early modern thought, and to medievalists looking at continuity with the early modern period.

Contents:

Through species to the world: Aquinas and Henry of Ghent

Perception without intermediaries: Olivi's Critique of species

Direct realism about perception and beyond: Auriol and Ockham

Transformations of Cartesianism: Malebranche and Arnauld

Ideas and objects in Desgabets's radical Cartesianism

The solid philosophy of John Sergeant

From representation to object

Criteriological problems.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 17 Jul 2017).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-316-85680-1

1-316-85908-8

1-316-85946-0

1-316-85510-4

1-316-85984-3

1-316-86136-8

1-316-86022-1