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5 - Descartes’ Debt to Augustine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2024

By
Stephen R. L. Clark
Edited by
Michael McGhee
Michael McGhee
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool
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Summary

Jonathan Edwards identified the central act of faith as ‘the cordial consent of beings to Being in general’, which is to say to God (see Holbrook, 1973, pp. 102ff). That equation, of Being, Truth and God, is rarely taken seriously in analytical circles. My argument will be that this is to neglect the real context of a great deal of past philosophy, particularly the very Cartesian arguments from which so many undergraduate courses begin. All too many students issue from such courses immunized against enthusiasm, in the conceit that they have answers to all the old conundrums, which were in any case no more than verbal trickery.

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Spiritual Life , pp. 117 - 143
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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