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Error and the Senses

\emph{The intellect} is the faculty of representation. \emph{The will} is what affirms or denies something represented \emph{Judgement} occurs when the intellect represents something which the will affirms (or denies). \emph{Error} occurs when will affirms (or denies) incorrectly.

The intellect is the faculty of representation.

The will is what affirms or denies something represented

Judgement occurs when the intellect represents something which the will affirms (or denies).

What about the senses?

Where do they fit in?

Sensory perceptions of tastes, smells, sounds, heat, cold, light, colors and the like ‘do not represent anything located outside our thought’

These sensory perceptions ‘vary according to the different movements which pass from all parts of our body to the ... brain’

Principles

(\citealp[p.~ 219, AT VIII:35]{descartes:1985_csm1} cited by \citealp[p.~348]{simmons:1999_are})
Sensations vs representations

‘Something which I thought I was seeing with my eyes is in fact grasped solely by the faculty of judgement which is in my mind’

(Meditation 2).

‘I have been in the habit of misusing the order of nature. For‘the proper purpose of [...] sensory perceptions [...] is simply to inform the mind of what is beneficial or harmful [...];
and to this extent they are sufficiently clear and distinct.
But I misuse them by treating them as reliable touchstones for immediate judgements about the essential nature of the bodies located outside us;
yet this is an area where they provide only very obscure information.’

\citep[pp.~57-8]{descartes:1985_csm2}

Descartes, Meditation IV

Sensations can have valence without representing anything
Distinguish two claims: \begin{enumerate} \item Sensory perceptions are caused by things. \item Sensory perceptions represent (or present) things. \end{enumerate} Descartes accepts the first of these two claims (‘I do not see how God could be understood to be anything but a deceiver if the ideas were transmitted from a source other than corporeal things’).

Distinction:

Sensory perceptions have causes

Sensory perceptions represent (or present) things

Sensations like electricity have causes.

‘I do not see how God could be understood to be anything but a deceiver if the ideas were transmitted from a source other than corporeal things’

Recall this: The claim that bodies are ‘not strictly perceived by the senses’ plays an essential role in Descartes account of error. Since the senses do not strictly perceive bodies, they cannot be the cause of errors about bodies.

The intellect is the faculty of representation.

The will is what affirms or denies something represented

Judgement occurs when the intellect represents something which the will affirms (or denies).

What about the senses?

Where do they fit in?

Do sensory perceptions have intentional objects?

Ie they represent or otherwise relate to properties of things?