Descartes and More on the infinity of the world.

In this paper, I address the controversy between Henry More and René Descartes on the indefinite extension of the world. I provide a new reading of Descartes' famous final answer of 15 April 1649. I read the entire debate in the terms of a disagreement concerning the epistemological status of the ne...

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Publicado en:British Journal for the History of Philosophy Vol. 25; no. 5; pp. 878 - 897
Autor principal: Agostini, Igor
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Sep2017
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Descartes and More on the infinity of the world.
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        au: Agostini, Igor
        affil: Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy
      su:
        Infinite, The
        Descartes, René, 1596-1650
        More, Henry, 1614-1687
        Mathematics theorems
        Philosophy
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        subj:
          Infinite, The
          Descartes, René, 1596-1650
          More, Henry, 1614-1687
          Mathematics theorems
          Philosophy
      keyword:
        eternal truths
        Henry More
        indefinite
        infinity
        René Descartes
      ab: In this paper, I address the controversy between Henry More and René Descartes on the indefinite extension of the world. I provide a new reading of Descartes' famous final answer of 15 April 1649. I read the entire debate in the terms of a disagreement concerning the epistemological status of the necessity of our judgement about the extension of the universe. Accordingly, the disagreement on the infinity of the world constitutes a case of a more general disagreement on the nature of the necessity of the theorems of Cartesian Physics. In particular, as concerns Descartes' last reply, I argue that his assertion that a finite world is contradictory should be interpreted as a reply to More's claim that the thesis of the infinity of the world, in so far as it cannot be grounded on the identity between matter and extension, does not express a logical necessity. Descartes' assertion of the logical impossibility of a finite world, far from being, as it has always been read, a concession he made under the pressure of More's objections, expresses the more radical element of the entire debate about the extension of the universe.
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    language: English
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