Cartesian concepts

Descartes advocates very strict epistemic standards, maintaining that we should only accept propositions which are “completely certain and indubitable” or “evident and irrefutable”. However, it also appears that Descartes accepts many metaphysical propositions that fall far short of these standards. Descartes’ epistemology and metaphysics thus appear radically opposed. I believe this appearance is misleading. While I do not think that Descartes managed to meet his own extremely strict epistemic standards, I believe he did not violate them as severely as many people believe. To show this, the first step is to clarify Descartes’ concepts. In this work, I examine and clarify many Cartesian concepts, including the concepts of attributes, perfections, formal reality, objective reality, higher forms, formal containment, eminent containment, implication, inconceivability apart, formal causation, efficient causation, clarity, obscurity, distinctness, confusion, things, inherence, substances, modes and ways of existing. I then use these clarifications to explicate one of Descartes’ crucial arguments, his first argument for the existence of God.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Geoffrey Taylor Anders I