Theology and the Cartesian doctrine of freedom
By: Étienne Gilson ; translated by James G. Colbert
Publisher: St. Augustine's Press
Published: 2015
Place of publication: South Bend, Indiana
Language: eng
Number of pages: 331
ISBN-13: 9781587318580
Subjects: Jansenists; Philosophy and religion; Doctrinal Theology; History; RELIGION / Theology; Free will and determinism
Work titles: Doctrine cartésienne de la liberté et la théologie
Description: "Theology and the Cartesian Doctrine of Freedom, now for the first time available in English,was Étienne Gilson's doctoral thesis and part of a larger project to show the medieval roots of Descartes at a time when the very existence of medieval philosophy was often ignored. Young Descartes was sent to La Flèche, one of the Jesuits schools that offered a complete philosophical program, and Descartes would have had the same philosophical training as a Jesuit. There is some controversy about the exact dates of Descartes's stay at La Flèche and consequently about his philosophy instructor. By Gilson's calculations François Véron taught Descartes for three years. Véron eventually left the Jesuits to be free to engage in extraordinarily aggressive anti-Calvinist polemics. If anything, Véron's overbearing manner may have contributed to Descartes antipathy toward Scholastic philosophy. (Whatever Descartes's objections to its philosophy curriculum, later in life he recommended la Flèche as the best school in France.) Descartes,s great intellectual mission in life was not his mathematics but his physics, which was understood as a part of philosophy. We see him navigate the shoals of heated theological and religious strife in his attempt to articulate the metaphysical foundations(and in particular a philosophical vision of God) for his physics or theory of nature. As a layman, he always pleaded ignorance in technically theological matters. He presented himself as a loyal Catholic, quite sincerely in the portrait Gilson paints."--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Table of Contents Translator's Preface Introduction Part I Divine Freedom Chapter one Descartes and Education at La Flèche. The Texts Chapter two Descartes's Adversaries Chapter three Final Causes and the Idea of Infinity Chapter four The Sources: Duns Scotus and Mersenne Chapter five The Cartesian Account of Divine Freedom and Oratorian Theology Part II Human Freedom Chapter one Error Chapter two The Relations of Understanding and Will. Judgment Chapter three The Critique of Freedom of Indifference. Its Sources Chapter four Human Freedom in the Principia Philosophiae Chapter five Freedom of Indifference from De Libertate to Augustinus Chapter six Descartes and Nascent Jansenism Chapter seven Descartes and Dogmata Theologica of Fr. Petau Conclusion Bibliography Index of Names.