Abstract

SOARES, Alexandre Guimarães Tadeu de. Considerations on the impossibility of defining man based on Descartes. Educação e Filosofia [online]. 2020, vol.34, n.72, pp.1157-1188.  Epub Feb 03, 2022. ISSN 1982-596X.  https://doi.org/10.14393/revedfil.v34n72a2020-59282.

The aim of this text is to reflect on the meaning of the rejection of the traditional definition of man performed by Descartes when he attempts to understand what we are. This rejection is the result of a new method of philosophizing, which we may designate as the way of ideas-that which emerges from the forces of one’s own spirit to examine all that occurs within it and in any other thing, avoiding the use of presuppositions. To highlight this difference of perspective and the reiterated willingness of this French philosopher in elaborating it, we indicate the limitation of the notion of concept-whether that of the Aristotelian-Scholastic tradition or the post-Cartesian tradition, strongly characterized by scientific representation-to deal with the problematic of the phenomenon of the human. In this respect, we stress the richness and amplitude of the notion of idea, elaborated and re-elaborated over years by this philosopher, to address this complex phenomenon. Since man is not a substance, the manifestation of his aspects is always adjectival, allowing qualification without, however, providing comprehension. This difficulty of perception therefore requires that the study of the idea of man explore human rationality itself to the greatest extent.

Keywords : Descartes; man; idea; concept; definition.

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