Idea and Ontology: An Essay in Early Modern Metaphysics of Ideas

Contents

contents Acknowledgments xi List of Abbreviations xiii Introduction: Idea Ontology and the Early Modern Tale 1 1 the traditional ontology 11 1.1 Substance 12 1.2 Modes 20 1.3 What Is an Idea? 22 1.4 Stretching Idea Ontologies 34 2 descartes 37 2.1 Representation 38 2.2 Perception, Ideas, and Images 41 2.3 Innate Ideas, Dispositions, and Causes 47 2.4 The Complications of the Passions 51 3 the cartesians: malebranche and arnauld 55 3.1 Malebranche’s Theory of Ideas 56 3.2 Substantializing Ideas 61 3.3 Attacking Modes 66 3.4 A New Ontology? 70 3.5 Arnauld’s Theory of Ideas 72 3.6 Critique of Malebranche 75 3.7 The Cartesian Debate 78 viii contents 4 locke 79 4.1 Locke ‘‘Deontologized’’ 81 4.2 Lennon’s Locke 88 4.3 Locke’s Contemporaries 94 4.4 Locke’s Implicit Ontology 99 5 leibniz 116 5.1 Resolving a ‘‘Tension’’ 117 5.2 Ideas as Dispositions 120 5.3 Reading Leibniz 121 5.4 Ideas: Being One vs. Having One 124 5.5 Innate Ideas 126 5.6 Difficulties with Dispositions 129 5.7 Ideas as Modes 136 6 berkeley 138 6.1 Minds and Ideas 139 6.2 Ideas as Objects 141 6.3 Ideas as Modes 148 6.4 Qualities 155 6.5 Unperceived Existence 159 6.6 Phenomenalism 161 6.7 Berkeley and the Early Modern Tale 172 7 divine ideas 177 7.1 Divine Ideas and Archetypes 178 7.2 ‘‘In’’ the Mind of God 181 7.3 Permutations 189 contents ix 7.4 Defending Berkeley’s Theory of Divine Ideas 193 7.5 Fleeting Ideas 209 8 abstraction and heterogeneity 218 8.1 Abstract Ideas 218 8.2 Kinds of Abstraction 219 8.3 Berkeley’s Attack 223 8.4 Berkeley’s Solution: General Ideas 231 8.5 Perceptual Heterogeneity 233 8.6 The Molyneux Thought Experiment 236 8.7 The Argument from Difference in Content 237 8.8 Adding Visible and Tangible Lines 238 8.9 Heterogeneity and the Nature of Ideas 240 8.10 Ontology to Heterogeneity 241 9 hume and idea ontology 246 9.1 Perceptions as Substances 248 9.2 Dependent Perceptions 258 9.3 Concluding Remarks: The Demise of the Early Modern Tale 265 References 269 Index 275 ...