Abstract

Dan Arbib's book follows the numerous studies devoted, in the last twenty years, to the topic of the infinite in Descartes. For the first time, however, with Arbib's work, this question is addressed thematically.Its fundamental purpose is the demonstration of what Arbib calls an "induction a priori" : the Cartesian infinite belongs, and at the same time does not belong, to metaphysics as ontotheology. The verification of this hypothesis depends on a "non-negotiable condition" : the infinite belongs to metaphysics insofar as it is subordinated to the ego, and for this reason is supremely representable. The infinite, indeed, arises along the metaphysical path of Duns Scotus that, in the...