Descartes on the source of error: the Fourth Meditation and the Correspondence with Elisabeth
British Journal for the History of Philosophy October 20, 2022 Lianghua Zhou 1 citation
Descartes's Fourth Meditation blames indifference of the will for error, suggesting judgments are arbitrary, but his 1645 letter to Elisabeth instead identifies passions as the source of error by misrepresenting objects' value. This essay argues that the two accounts address different kinds of error—theoretical versus practical—and that Descartes extends the passion-based explanation to cover theoretical error as well. The earlier account does not make judgments arbitrary but fails to explain why we judge prematurely instead of continuing inquiry; the later account fills that gap. The first account is schematic partly because the Meditations had not yet systematically examined the nature of passions.