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Learning from Six Philosophers Volume 1$
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Jonathan Bennett

Print publication date: 2001

Print ISBN-13: 9780198250913

Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: November 2003

DOI: 10.1093/0198250916.001.0001

Descartes on Causation

Chapter:
(p. 84 ) Chapter 5 Descartes on Causation
Source:
Learning from Six Philosophers Volume 1
Author(s):

Jonathan Bennett

Publisher:
Oxford University Press
DOI:10.1093/0198250916.003.0006

Gives the source of Descartes's view that a cause must in some way resemble its effect. The concept of a trope, or property‐instance, and the theory that causation is trope‐transfer and Descartes's rejection of this is discussed. His theory that substances endure only with help from God and his differing treatments of causal action of body on body, body on mind (including sense perception), mind on body, and mind on mind are explained. Reveals his lack of any robust concept of, or analytic theory of, causation.

Keywords:   causation, Descartes, interaction, perception, trope

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