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Tad M. Schmaltz Department of Philosophy Duke University October 16, 2003 Thursday, 4:00pm-6:00pm Nursing, Room 125 There is some controversy in the literature over the status of the "true and immutable essence" of mathematical shapes that Descartes posited in the Fifth Meditation. Commentators are divided between those who see him as adopting the broadly Platonist view that such essences are ontologically independent both of the human mind and of particular instantiations of shapes in the material world, and those who hold that he proposed a conceptualist reduction of the essences to features of the human mind. I revisit this controversy not to resolve it but rather highlight tensions in Descartes concerning the relation of his account of immutable essences to his doctrine of the creation of the eternal truths. I attempt indicate the significance of these tensions by showing their importance for the later reception of his thought. I focus in particular on the dispute between two French Cartesians, Nicolas Malebranche and Pierre-Sylvain Regis. Malebranche defended a Platonist view of immutable essences that is incompatible with Descartes's doctrine, whereas Regis rejected Malebranche's Platonism precisely in order to safeguard that doctrine. However, both Malebranche and Regis provided clear and principled reasons for setting aside a conceptualist account of eternal truths and immutable essences.  |
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