Descartes and the Coimbra Commentaries: A Critical Source of the Cartesian<i>Meditations</i>

Gatto, Alfredo

doi:10.1484/j.quaestio.5.118134

Cited by 1 publication

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“…In a way, Descartes would reprise this model in the Objections and Replies that followed his Meditations on First Philosophy, perhaps reflecting the influence of the Coimbra school. 18 However, centuries of cataloguing he-said-she-said arguments left layers almost impossible to track. Descartes thus wanted to start anew since, in his estimate, the opinions of past authorities did not add up to a tenable worldview: "[C]onsidering how many diverse opinions learned men may maintain on a single question-even though it is impossible for more than one to be true-I held as well-nigh false everything that was merely probable."…”

Section: Descartes' Attempt To (Re)start Everything From Scratchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illusory Signs as Frustrated Expectations: Undoing Descartes’ Overblown Response

Champagne

2023

RPF

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Descartes held that it is impossible to make true statements about what we perceive, but I go over alleged cases of illusory experience to show why such a skeptical conclusion (and recourse to God) is overblown. The overreaction, I contend, stems from an insufficient awareness of the habitual expectations brought to any given experience. These expectations manifest themselves in motor terms, as perception constantly prompts and updates an embodied posture of readiness for what might come next. Such habitual anticipations work best when they efface themselves, so it is easy to blame perception when our expectations get frustrated. I illustrate this misdirected blame with the example of a stick partially in water: it is only because we expect the stick to be straight that its appearance as bent is deemed problematic. I thus conclude that, if we factor in the habitual interpretations operative in perception and switch to a processual view that allows practical engagement, we can deflate the worries that led Descartes to rule out perceptual truths. Distancing myself from the naïve “sign” of folk semiotics, my critique draws inspiration from the triadic semiotic model developed in some late medieval schools of Portugal.

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Section: Descartes' Attempt To (Re)start Everything From Scratchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illusory Signs as Frustrated Expectations: Undoing Descartes’ Overblown Response

Champagne

2023

RPF

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Descartes and the Coimbra Commentaries: A Critical Source of the CartesianMeditations

Cited by 1 publication

References 13 publications

Illusory Signs as Frustrated Expectations: Undoing Descartes’ Overblown Response

Illusory Signs as Frustrated Expectations: Undoing Descartes’ Overblown Response

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