Showing papers in "Review of Metaphysics in 1978"

Cartesian Optics and the Geometrization of Nature

Abstract: In His Dioptrics, Descartes puts forth a mechanistic theory of perception?"mechanistic," in the sense that matter (for Descartes, mere extension) and motion (a "mode" of extension) are its funda mental concepts. The most striking component of this theory is Descartes' very careful treatment of the visual perception of distance as utterly different in kind from the visual perception of color. For in the explanation of distance perception, Descartes invoked the use of a natural geometry, innate in the percipient. This natural geometry, he claimed, processes the data of sensation so as to produce a judgment about natural spatial relationships. Significantly, Berkeley, in his Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision, leveled a sustained attack on just this geometrical theory of distance perception.1 At first glance it may seem, as it did to Berkeley, that Descartes' geometrical theory is produced by a simple error: namely, by the idea that a physiological optics provides an adequate description of the psychological processes of judging distances.2 In truth, this is the weakest of Berkeley's objections to Descartes' theory. Obviously we do not see the angles and lines of convergence when we focus on a distant object, nor are we aware of

Essentialism in Aristotle

Abstract: L'essentialisme selon Quine est "la doctrine qui affirme qu'un certain attribut d'une chose peut etre essentiel a la chose et d'autres essentiels". Meme si cette phrase ne represente pas exactement le type d'essentialisme propre a Aristote, on peut malgre tout montrer qu'Aristote est engage dans l'essentialisme au sens de Quine, surtout a travers les textes de Metaphysique 7 et 8.

Symbolism and Transcendence: On Some Philosophical Aspects of Gershom Scholem’s Opus

Abstract: VTERSHOM Scholem is universally recognized as the founder of a new discipline within the "Science of Judaism," namely, the study of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, in its trends, transformations, and impact. But because of the significance of his research in Jewish religion and religion in general and the interaction between history and religious thought which emerges in his analysis, it would be too narrow to refer to Scholem only in terms of scholarly work. Scholem represents a unique synthesis of a bibliographer, editor of texts, historian, historian of religions, and metaphysician. The philo sophical aspects of his work will be our concern in the present analy sis, though the analysis points only to several components of the philosophical background of his work.x