Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Dualism and Polarity

Descartes' Theological Dualism can be traced to a methodological error--when from 'I cannot doubt that I am doubting X', he isolates 'I doubt', and, hence, 'I think', from which he can attribute immateriality to 'I'.  Thus, to alternatively recover methodological rigor, 'I cannot doubt that I am doubting X' has potentially fruitful implications.  One is the inherent ordered polar structure of Experience, e. g. that 'I think' is always 'I think some X', which is the basic principle of Brentano's Intentionality, a theory that informs Husserl's tellingly named 'Cartesian Meditations'.  Another is that, conversely, the Objects of Experience are not independent of their Subject, from which can be developed a Perspectivist Epistemological theory.  Finally, that ordered polarity implies an Egocentric concept of Space, which Descartes's own device of a Geometrical Axis can be recognized as illustrating.  However, unlike Dualism, such Polarity does not serve the previously discussed urgent Theological purpose of relocating a deity that has been displaced in the repudiation of Geocentrism.

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