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Showing posts from November, 2023

Leibniz On Scepticism

  Simon Foucher an academic sceptic made an argument that representation is not possible in the Cartesian system. Hence mind is incapable of knowing matter and the problem of objective validity can never be solved. This argument was very influential. Cartesian like Desgabets, Arnauld, La Forge, Malebranche tried to find a solution. The arguments are mentioned in Pierre Bayle’s dictionary and through it Locke, Berkeley and Hume got to know it. Foucher’s argument is two-fold. The first objection is along the following lines: According to Cartesian Dualism only two things really exist - mind and matter and everything else that can be said to exist - exists either as modifications of mind or matter. Now why does mind-matter interaction problem arise in this worldview? For Descartes the relation of a substance to its modification is a causal relation and it is unique and individuative. To illustrate: wax may be modified in endless ways in endless shapes but all these modifications of wax