Professor Emily Thomas emily.e.thomas@durham.ac.uk
Professor
In Defense of Real Cartesian Motion
Thomas, Emily
Authors
Abstract
On Thomas Lennon’s (2007) “Eleatic” reading of Descartes, the Cartesian world is in reality motionless, its motions conceived as mere phenomenal appearances. Lennon is aware that this radical reading appears to be at odds with various Cartesian texts that seemingly describe real motions, and accordingly he reinterprets these texts in such a way as to render them compatible with his reading. This reply to Lennon considers many further Cartesian texts that cannot be “reinterpreted” along the lines Lennon describes, with the ultimate aim of showing that the phenomenalist is committed to dividing Cartesian texts into passages dealing with reality and with appearance. I argue there are good reasons not to read Descartes in this way, and we should take Cartesian motion at face value: to be real.
Citation
Thomas, E. (2015). In Defense of Real Cartesian Motion. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 53(4), 747-762. https://doi.org/10.1353/hph.2015.0067
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jan 2, 2015 |
Publication Date | Oct 1, 2015 |
Deposit Date | Oct 21, 2016 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 29, 2024 |
Journal | Journal of the History of Philosophy |
Print ISSN | 0022-5053 |
Electronic ISSN | 1538-4586 |
Publisher | Johns Hopkins University Press |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 53 |
Issue | 4 |
Pages | 747-762 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1353/hph.2015.0067 |
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Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2015 The Johns Hopkins University Press. This article first appeared in Journal of the History of Philosophy, Volume 53, Issue 4, October 2015, pages 747-762.
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