Antoine Arnauld
Antoine Arnauld, (1612 - August 8, 1694) — le grand as contemporaries called him, to distinguish him from his father — was a French Roman Catholic theologian, philosopher, and mathematician.
Biography
Antoine Arnauld was born in Paris on February 8, 1612. His family was a particularly important one in France, with various connections to the convent at Port-Royal (Arnauld's older sistent, Mère Angélique, had become the abbess in 1602). Arnauld's original aspiration was to become a lawyer, as his father had. Yet by 1633, Arnauld had decided to pursue theology instead. In 1640, he joined an informal group of intellectuals associated with the Port-Royal convent, whose ranks included Blaise Pascal and Pierre Nicole. That same year, he was asked to write a series of objections to a forthcoming work by René Descartes. These objections were published the following year as the Fourth Objections to Descartes' landmark Meditations. Arnauld's objections were particularly incisive, and he began to establish his reputation as one of the most powerful analytic minds of his day.
In 1641, Arnauld was ordained a priest. Two years later, he was admitted to the faculty of the Sorbonne. That same year, he published De la fréquente communion, a critique of the Jesuits. This work remained influential in Catholic circles well into the 1800's.
Philosophy
Arnauld's mark on the history of philosophy was primarily made via his interactions with three of the greatest rationalists of his time: Rene Descartes, Nicolas Malebranche and Gottfried Leibniz. Though his first notable work was his criticism of Descartes, he eventually became one of Descartes' most staunch defenders. Though more than capable of seeing to the heart of purely philosophical issues, Arnauld was first and foremost a theologian. His advocation of Cartesian philosophy stemmed from his belief that it best supported the tenets of the Catholic faith.
Objections to Descartes
Descartes' Meditations was published in 1641 along with six sets of objections andd replies. Arnauld composed the fourth set of objections. His most famous objection to the Meditations is his description of what has come to be known as 'The Cartesian Circle.' Arnauld noticed that Descartes relied on what he termed 'clear and distinct perceptions' in reaching the premises in his arguments for the existence of God, then used the existence of God as a premise in his argument for the claim that all he clearly and distinctly perceived to be the case had to be true. Such a form of argument, however, was circular - each argument relied on a premise that could only be accepted if one already accepted the conclusion of that argument.
Descartes' response was quite brief. He pointed Arnauld back to passages where he had noted the use of the proof of God with respect to the memory of things formerly clearly and distinctly perceived. Most, but not all, contemporary readers of Descartes have found this response thoroughly unsatisfactory.
Arnauld also took issue with Descartes' certainty that there is nothing in the mind of which we are not aware. To shed doubt on this view, Arnauld cited the example of an infant in its mother's womb, who surely is so far unaware that she has the power to think.
Relatedly, Arnauld found reason to question Descartes' proof of the distinctness of the mind and body, which was based on his having a clear and distinct perception of each without the other. If such a line of reasoning were sound, Arnauld argued, then it would likewise be reasonable for someone to argue that a triangle could be right-angled without having the square of its hypotenuse equal to the sum of the squares of its two sides (the Pythagorean Theorem). For someone without knowledge of the Theorem might well clearly understand the nature of a right triangle, and yet have that understanding without seeing that the Theorem applied to any such triangle.
Arnauld also included a theological objection. In the Meditations, Descartes subtly provided the elements of a non-Aristotelian physics. On Descartes' view, the physical world could be explained entirely in terms of extension and motion. Such a view, Arnauld objected, undermined the then-established solution to the metaphysical puzzles of transubstantiation. Aristotelian metaphysics described the world in terms of matter and form, and Catholic theologians had made use of these notions in saying that, in the Eucharist, the bread retained the form of bread while becoming the matter of Christ's body. No such solution was available to Descartes, who shared Arnauld's desire for the new philosophy to remain consistent with Catholic doctrine.
Debate with Malebranche
Arnauld was initially supportive of Malebranche's philosophy as presented in the latter's The Search After Truth (first published in 1674-75). Like Arnauld, Malebranche was a priest whose interest in philosophy was largely theologically motivated. Also like Arnauld, Malebranche drew heavily from the thought of Descartes and St. Augustine - indeed, both Malebranche and Arnauld came to be regarded as experts in the new Cartesian philosophy.
Correspondence with Leibniz
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
External links
- JANSENISM RESOURCES: features various primary texts and discussions relating to the theology and history of Arnauld and Jansenism
- John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson. Antoine Arnauld at the MacTutor archive
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