A Reappraisal of the Role of the Imagination in the First Cartesian Meditation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53382/issn.2735-6140.52Keywords:
imagination, fiction, first meditation, Descartes, methodical roleAbstract
Certain readings, guided by the dream argument in Descartes’ first meditation, insist on marginalizing the role of the imagination, claiming that this faculty goes against the aim of the metaphysical project. In addition, this meditation is often casually and weakly studied, as if the argumentation offered therein had no need for detailed discussion. However, in this article I propose that, by revisiting these passages, it is plausible to detect a methodical role for the imagination, insofar as it is understood as fiction. In this sense, it will be understood as a creator of mental structures that does not have as a necessary condition the correspondence with sensory-perceptual reality and the representation of images in the mind. This orientation allows us to note that the methodical role of the imagination is manifested in three essential moments for the meditation mentioned: the scene of the heater, the dream argument and the supposition of the evil genius.
Downloads
References
Broughton, Janet. Descartes's Method of Doubt. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Calvo, Rosa. Uso de la Mnemotecnia como herramienta educativa de la Sociedad del Conocimiento en la Era Digital. 2022. Universidad del País Vasco.Tesis de Doctorado.
Chiuminatto, Pablo. René Descartes. El método de las figuras. Imaginario visual e Ilustración científica. Santiago de Chile: Orjjikh Editores, 2013.
Clarke, Desmond. Descartes's Theory of Mind. Nueva York: Oxford, 2005.
Cocking, John. Imagination. A study in the history of ideas. Londres: Routledge, 2005.
Curley, E.M. Descartes against the skeptics. Harvard University Press, 1978.
Descartes, René. Discurso del método, dióptrica, meteoros y geometría (abreviado AT, seguido del número del tomo en números romanos y la página en números arábigos), trad. Guillermo Quintas Alonso. Madrid: Alfaguara, 1981.
Descartes, René. Meditaciones acerca de la Filosofía Primera. Seguidas de las Objeciones y Respuestas (abreviado AT, VII, seguido de la página en números arábigos), trad. Jorge Aurelio Díaz. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2014.
Dubouclez, Olivier. “Inventer. Le jeune Descartes et les voies de l’inventio en 1619-1620” Examina Philosophica, I Quaderni di Alvearium 1 (2015): 57-73.
Gouhier, Henri. Doute méthodique ou négation méthodique. La Pensée Métaphysique de Descartes. Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin., 1987.
Gueroult, Martial. Descartes’ Philosophy Interpreted According to the Order of Reasons Vol 1, trad. Roger Ariew. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
Jimenez, Antonio. “El lugar de la imaginación en el proyecto filosófico cartesiano” Revista de Filosofía Universidad de Costa Rica 3/72 (1992): 159-164.
Macarthur, David. “The Seriousness of Doubt and Our Natural Trust in the Senses in the First Meditation” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 33/2 (2003): 159-181.
Olson, Mark. “Descartes First Meditation: mathematics and the Laws of Logic” Journal of the history of philosophy 3/26 (1988): 407-438.
Rubinelli, Sara. Ars Topica. The Classical Technique of Constructing Arguments from Aristotle to Cicero. Lugano: Springer, 2009.
Schlutz, Alexander. Mind's World. Imagination and subjectivity from Descartes to Romanticism. University of Washington Press, 2009.
Smyth, Richard. “A Methaphysical Reading of the First Meditation” The Philosophical Quarterly 36/145 (1986): 483-503.
Wilson, Margaret Dauler. Descartes, trad. José Antonio Robles. México D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1990.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
