Descartes' Theory of Ideas

David Clemenson has two PhDs - one in philosophy from Rice University, USA and the other in history of science from Harvard. His publications include articles in Analysis and the Southwest Philosophy Review.

• 1. Windows of the Soul: Jesuit Species; 2. Windows of the Soul: Cartesian Ideas; 3. Much Ado About Non-Things: Descartes on Sensory Ideas and Material Falsity; 4. Ideas as Acts and Ideas as Objects: The Arnauld-Malebranche Debate; 5. Idealist Coda: Berkeley's Master Argument; Appendix A: Latin text and English translation of Rubio's Tractatus de sensibilibus, part of his Commentariis in libros Aristotelis De Anima. Appendix B: Biographical information on Jesuit philosophers discussed in Chapter 1; Bibliography; Index.

"David Clemenson's Descartes' Theory of Ideas is a welcome addition to the recent literature placing Descartes in the context of the final days of scholasticism ... a significant contribution to our understanding of the scholastic background and context in which Descartes wrote ... Clemenson has written a book that will be invaluable to anyone working on Descartes, as well as to those working on late scholastic thought and its relation to modern philosophy. His interpretation of Descartes, as we have seen, is incredibly provocative and will generate much discussion among scholars. Clemenson's knowledge and treatment of the relevant texts, both the obvious and the utterly obscure, is carefully presented, and his discussion of the technical late scholastic texts is clear without being pedantic" —Dan Kaufman, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, March 6, 2008