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The Development of Descartes’ Idea of Representation by Correspondence

  • Hanoch Ben-Yami

Descartes was the first to hold that, when we perceive, the representation need not resemble what it represents but should correspond to it. Descartes developed this ground-breaking, influential conception in his work on analytic geometry and then transferred it to his theory of perception. I trace the development of the idea in Descartes’ early mathematical works; his articulation of it in Rules for the Direction of the Mind; his first suggestions there to apply this kind of representation-by-correspondence in the scientific inquiry of colours; and, finally, the transfer of the idea to the theory of perception in The World.

  • Keywords:
  • René Descartes,
  • representation,
  • geometry,
  • perception,
  • colour,
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Hanoch Ben-Yami

Central European University, Austria - ORCID: 0000-0002-4903-854X

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  • Publication Year: 2023
  • Pages: 41-57
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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  • Publication Year: 2023
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

The Development of Descartes’ Idea of Representation by Correspondence

Authors

Hanoch Ben-Yami

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0169-8.04

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2023

Copyright Information

© 2023 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Reading Descartes

Book Subtitle

Consciousness, Body, and Reasoning

Editors

Andrea Strazzoni, Marco Sgarbi

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

206

Publication Year

2023

Copyright Information

© 2023 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0169-8

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0168-1

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0169-8

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979-12-215-0170-4

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Knowledge and its Histories

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