O conceito de ideia e a resolução do problema do solipsismo na metafísica cartesiana

Abstract

This research proposes a discussion on Descartes’ metaphysics through an interpretation of his concept of idea, specifically that one presented in the third of his Meditations on First Philosophy. We have sought to comprehend what ideas are and what their main role is in Descartes’ metaphysics, and we have achieved results that differ from those obtained by major commentators of Descartes’ thoughts, especially in relation to the renowned reading of Martial Gueroult, according to which the prime goal of the theory of ideas found in the Third Meditation, as well as that of the whole meditation, is to solve the problem of the objective value of ideas. This research proposes a reading of the Third Meditation that states that there is a more fundamental objective to be achieved by ideas in the third of the Meditations on First Philosophy. The thesis to be defended here is that the prime goal of ideas in the Third Meditation is directly related to the problem of solipsism, the main problem Descartes tries to solve in that Meditation. Therefore, we want to defend that the prime goal of the theory of ideas in the Third Meditation is to prove that the “I” (subject) does not exist on its own, and to affirm a need for an “other”. For that purpose, we approach the First and Second Meditations in order both to reconstruct the path taken towards the Third Meditation, and to comprehend how the problem of solipsism, which remains in a great part of the Third Meditation, is composed. Through analysis of Descartes’ theory of ideas, we intend to evince not only that its main problem is that of judging there are things exterior to the subject from which ideas came, but also that the prime goal of Descartes’ approach to ideas is related to this problem and consists, fundamentally, in setting up conditions so that the subject can acknowledge the existence of another being.