CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Vu, Ngan |
|---|---|
| Title | The Ontological Status and Modality of Eternal Truths and Essences in Descartes |
| Summary | The thesis aims to address the problem of the ontology of eternal truths and essence in Descartes’s philosophy. There are different interpretations regarding the ontology of eternal truths and essences, and the thesis shows that this difference is because of the tensions between texts. An interpretation that properly accounts for the ontological status of eternal truths thus need not ignore what has been claimed, both explicitly and implicitly, in these texts. The thesis first shows four contemporary interpretations of the ontological status of eternal truths and essences in Descartes. Each reading is presented with texts most quoted by defenders of that reading and an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of it. While doing so, it also questions whether those texts have been analyzed properly or can be understood in some non-original senses that do not necessarily imply anything with certainty about the ontological status of eternal truths and essences. After the first chapter, it should be clear of claims or ‘requirement’s that have been asserted about eternal truths and essences. This is the base of its next step, which is to propose an understanding of the modality and ontology of eternal truths and essences. To do so, it employs a distinction between formal and objective reality in Descartes’s corpus and suggests two possible understandings of eternal truths and essences. Finally, it analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the two readings. |
| Supervisor | Griffin, Michael V. |
| Department | Philosophy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/vu_ngan.pdf |
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