The Problem of Material Falsity in Descartes' Meditations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3986/fv.45.3.02Keywords:
ideas, feelings, material falsity, representation, childhood prejudices, obscurity, objective realityAbstract
The purpose of this paper is to give a consistent interpretation of Descartes’ theory of materially false ideas, i.e. ideas of sensible qualities. It must define what the problem of materially false ideas is, which ideas it refers to, and then situate these in Descartes’ ontology of ideas. Either we understand materially false ideas as genuinely misleading representations that present bodies as bearers of sensible qualities, or we understand them as representations that present bodies in an obscure way. Materially false ideas are sensations, not ideas of sensations. Descartes consistently defends a theory according to which the attribution of sensible qualities to bodies is a consequence of judgment, whereas sensations represent bodies only in a very obscure way. Sensations, like all other ideas, represent with the objective reality, and their obscurity is due to the union of the mind with the body.
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