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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Descartes's ideas, understood as operations of his mind, cannot be more perfect than his mind.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Descartes himself distinguishes material reality (ideas as operations) from objective reality (ideas as representations of objects).
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    • 2.The causal adequacy principle governing the Trademark Argument applies to objective reality, not material reality.
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    • 3.Conflating these two senses of 'idea' equivocates on the very distinction Descartes uses to argue for God's existence in Meditation III.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Malebranche argued that finite minds perceive ideas in God, meaning the representational content of ideas is not produced by nor constrained by the finite mind.
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    • 2.If ideas are modes of a divine intellect rather than a finite substance, the finite mind's perfection sets no upper bound on ideational content.
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    • 3.This Malebranchean reading is a coherent development of Cartesian principles and undermines the claim that the finite mind strictly limits its own ideas.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Ideas taken in the material sense are operations (modes) of the mind.
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    • 2.A mode cannot exceed the formal reality of the substance it modifies.
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    • 3.Descartes's mind is the substance whose modes his ideas are.
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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.