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Suárez and Descartes on the Mode(s) of Union
- Journal of the History of Philosophy
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 58, Number 3, July 2020
- pp. 471-492
- 10.1353/hph.2020.0048
- Article
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abstract:
Descartes claims at times that the human mind and its body possess a "true mode" that yields a "real and substantial union." This paper explores the connections of this sort of view to scholastic discussions of the substantial union, with particular focus on the contributions to these discussions by the later scholastic, Francisco Suárez. Suárez introduced a fully regimented notion of "mode" into early modern metaphysics, and this notion influenced Descartes's mature account of modes. With respect to the topic of this paper, however, it is also important that Suárez appealed to a special "substantial mode of union" to explain how the human composite can constitute a unified substance as opposed to a mere aggregate. Despite the fact that Descartes used similar terminology, the (plurality of) modes of substantial union that he posited differ significantly from the (single) substantial mode of union as conceived by Suárez.