On Descartes' Metaphysical Prism: The Constitution and the Limits of Onto-theo-logy in Cartesian Thought

388 Pages·1999·10.004 MB·English

by  Jean-Luc Marion, Jeffrey L Kosky

O n D e s c a r t e s ’ M e t a p h y s i c a l P r i s m

O n D e s c a r t e s ’
M
ET AP HYS I CAL P R I S M
The Constitution and
the Limits of
Onto'theo'logy
in Cartesian Thought
:■*:
J e a n ' L u c M a r i o n
Translated by Jeffrey L. Kosky
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
JEAN-LUC MARION is professor of philosophy at the Sorbonne.
He has written a number of books on philosophy,
including God without Being (1991) and Cartesian Questions (1999),
both published in translation by the University of Chicago Press.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 1999 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 1999
07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN: 0-226-50538-3 (cloth)
ISBN: 0-226-50539-1 (paper)
Originally published as Sur le prisme métaphysique de Descartes,
© Presses Universitaires de France, 1986.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marion, Jean-Luc. 1946-
[Sur le prisme méthaphysique de Descartes. English]
On Descartes’ metaphysical prism : the constitution and the limits of onto-
theology in Cartesian thought / Jean-Luc Marion ; translated by Jeffrey L. Kosky.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-226-50538-3 (hardcover : alk. paper).—ISBN 0-226-50539-1 (pbk. : alk.
paper)
1. Descartes, René, 1596-1650—Contributions in metaphysics.
2. Metaphysics. I. Title.
B1878.M5M3713 1999
110'.92—dc21 98-35104
CIP
©The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992.
C o n t e n t s
Translator’s Acknowledgments vu
Preface to the American Edition IX
Preface XV
Bibliographical Note XVII
The C losure of a Q uestion 1
i. M etaphysics 9
§1. An Undetermined Question / 9
§2. Metaphysics as Transgression I 14
§3. Two Decisions in Favor of a First Philosophy / 31
§4. Primacy and Universality: The Order and Being [l’étant] / 40
§5. The First Other / 54
ii. O nto-theo-logy 67
§6. Nothing Ontological / 67
§7. Principle and Causa Sui / 81
§8. The First Pronouncement about the Being of Beings: Cogitatio / 90
§9. The Second Pronouncement about the Being of Beings: Causa / 103
§10. A Redoubled Onto-theo-logy / 118
h i. Ego 128
§11. On the “Cogito, Sum” as a Primal Utterance / 128
§12. The Undetermined Equivalence of Being and Thought / 142
§13. The Egological Deduction of Substance / 150
§14. The Subsistent Temporality of the Ego / 169
§15. The Ego Outside Subsistence / 193
iv. G od 206
§16. The Question of the Divine Names / 206
§17. Substance and Infinity I 218
§18. Power and Perfections / 234
§19. The System of Contradictions / 244
§20. The Exceptional Name / 261
Overcoming
§21. Pascal within Cartesian Metaphysics / 277
§22. Descartes Useless and Uncertain / 259
§23. The Distance between the Orders / 306
§24. The Ego Undone and the Decentering of the Self / 322
§25. The Destitution of Metaphysics / 333
The Q uestion of an Opening
English-Language Editions Cited
Index
T r a n s l a t o r ’s A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s
If this translation could be held to a prism of its own, one would see in
the spectrum of its refracted light the contributions of numerous persons
whose care, encouragement, and assistance have lent their color to what
I, something of a prism in reverse, have composed here. Since these indi­
vidual colors are perhaps no longer visible in the work that follows, I
want these acknowledgments to serve as just such a prism, letting those
who have colored my composition be seen and thanked in their own
light.
Above all, thanks are due to Jean-Luc Marion, a friend, for seeing
something in me that I did not and inviting me to undertake this project.
This translation has benefited greatly from his reading, his comments,
and his confidence that I was the man for the job. The time needed to
do this work would not have been possible without the support of my
parents, Michael and Marsha Kosky, and that time would not have been
enough without the patience of David Brent at the University of Chicago
Press and of Dan Garber, who waited to read and comment on the
whole. I also want to thank Jeffrey Stern for his unflagging care and
support; without it, all the time in the world would not have been enough
for the work to get done. Thomas Carlson offered indefatigable encour­
agement as well as invaluable help with difficult passages and always
seemed able to find a light at the end of the tunnel. His companionship
made the time of this translation far less lonesome. Finally, thanks are
due to the people of Redmoon Theater in Chicago—especially Angela
Goodrich, Dodie Holderfield, Jim Lasko, Kristi Randall, Tria Smith, and
Blair Thomas—who have given me so much more than a place to work.
J. L. K.
Chicago, November 1997
vii

P r e f a c e to the A m erican E d it io n
It is always strange for an author to see one of his books live a new life
ten years after the first by passing from one language to another. One
cannot help wondering how far the second life will differ from the first,
possibly improving it or perhaps contradicting it. But when one is deal­
ing with the passage from French to English of a work in the history
of philosophy, especially a work whose characteristics, according to the
majority of its readers, belong to a typically “continental” style, the au­
thor finds himself as surprised as he could possibly be.
How could he not be surprised, seeing a translation of a book dedi­
cated to Descartes? First because, for obvious technical reasons, editors
often hesitate, in the United States as everywhere else, to assume the
tasks inherent to such a process (not only to have the text translated, but
here to translate and retain the Greek and Latin in the notes and the
citations). Consequently, I feel obliged to acknowledge the generosity
and serious-mindedness of the University of Chicago Press, which in the
person of David Brent has not shrunk before the effort and the invest­
ment. I am honored to see one of my works, in France reputed to be
technical or, worse yet, a commentary on a single author, transported to
the other side of the Atlantic. This is something quite unusual, and I am
well aware of its cost.
But there is still more that is surprising: at issue is a book dedicated
to Descartes. One can, without prejudice, say that American philosophy
has never held Descartes to be one of its founding fathers, but has long
considered him the a priori and deductive thinker par excellence, con­
demning experience and empiricism, refuted by Locke and by Newton,
too religious for some, almost atheistic for others, and only to be used as
a source of “logical flaws,” furnishing material for the debates of analytic
philosophy (the “self,” the inconclusive proofs for the existence of God,
and the all-too-famous “Cartesian circle” and “mind-body problem,”
etc.). This book (in fact, these books, since the English translation of
Questions cartésiennes is being published almost concurrently with the ix
X P reface to the A merican E dition
translation of Sur le prisme métaphysique de Descartes) therefore could
not have appeared if, first, Descartes’ image in the United States had not
been profoundly modified.1 Without this evolution, it would have been
impossible to imagine an intellectual interest and a public for such a
book.21 feel obliged here to acknowledge the remarkable efforts of R.
Popkin, G. Sebba, M. Wilson, H. Frankfurt, E. Curley, R. Kennington,
R. Watson, and many others, but also, more recently, those of C. Larm-
ore, R. Ariew, S. Nadler, D. Des Chesne, and a host of additional young
researchers. Above all, though, I must acknowledge my first friend at
the University of Chicago, Daniel Garber. As much by his decisive publi­
cations—be they individual (as The Metaphysical Physics of Descartes)
or collective (recently, with M. Ayers, the monumental Cambridge His­
tory of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy)—as by his national and inter­
national intellectual influence, my esteemed colleague from Hyde Park
has contributed powerfully to the development of Cartesian studies, the
establishment of real and persistent intellectual connections between the
two coasts of the Atlantic, and hence to the production of a new, more
exact, and above all more intelligent and complex image of Descartes’
thought and the role he plays in the history of philosophy. Thus the pres­
ent translation reflects, for the most part, a collaboration begun in the
mid-1980s when, invited for the first time to give a lecture in the United
States (at Columbia University), I met, at my friend and host Charles
Larmore’s house, an unknown, most kind, and very learned man, Daniel
Garber. Since this meeting, not a year has passed without our working
together and without my coming to the United States to pursue the ad­
vances in philosophy, with the hope of contributing to them. By joint
colloquia that became collective works, by exchanges that became trans­
lations, a continuum was set up between the two countries and the ways
of working. Now, the waters on both sides of the locks have risen to the
same level, the gates can open, and the passage can be completed. What
is astonishing for me therefore is perhaps that I no longer have to be
astonished by what, from the outside or twenty years ago, would have
stunned me.
This book, however, could still surprise some readers—not by chance,
1. See an outline of this evolution in “Le paradigme cartésien de la métaphysique,”
Actes du colloque pour le quatrième centenaire de la naissance de Descartes, Laval théo­
logique et philosophique, 53/3, Québec, 1997.
2. The same is true for an undertaking as important and significant as the translation
of Descartes’ writings by I Cottingham, Robert Stoothof, and Dugald Murdoch for Cam­
bridge University Press.