Meijns, SCA; (2017) Psychic Individuation in Early Modern Philosophy. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The current work offers five studies of how philosophers in the long seventeenth century handled puzzles related to individuation, distinctions and units in the mind. It addresses both intra-psychical individuation (to do with individuation or distinctions within a personal psyche) and extra-psychical individuation (to do with individuation or distinctions beyond a personal psyche). In ‘Unifying the Inner Senses’, I discuss Francisco Suárez’s contribution to understanding the category of ‘inner sense power’. In ‘Cartesian Evaluative Perception’, I focus on how René Descartes understands the relation between perception and evaluation. In ‘Henry More Against Monopsychism’ I argue that, in going against the idea that there is only one mind in the whole universe, Henry More comes to adopt a primitivism about psychic individuation. In ‘Cavendish’s Panpsychism’, I defend an interpretation of how Margaret Cavendish thinks that panpsychism can contribute to order in the natural world. In ‘Extended Souls’ I discuss how authors including Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes and Henry More uphold or reject the idea that souls can have spatial extension. These five studies contribute to our understanding of how authors in this period approached a core issue within the metaphysics of mind.

Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Title:	Psychic Individuation in Early Modern Philosophy
Event:	UCL (University College London)
Language:	English
UCL classification:	UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of Philosophy
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1533035

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