Publisher's Synopsis
I contend that Descartes's infamous commitment to God's free creation of the eternal truths plays an integral role in Descartes's philosophical program. Descartes's primary philosophical goal is to establish a method capable of yielding firm and lasting scientific knowledge. It isn't widely agreed that Descartes has been successful: first, his response to the threat of skepticism appears circular; and second, his account of God's free creation of eternal truths (e.g., mathematical and logical truths) seems to lead to paradox. I argue that neither criticism of Descartes is insuperable. In so arguing, I offer a novel interpretation of Descartes's project that rejects two common refrains of Cartesian scholarship. First, I deny that Descartes is an outd andd out internalist about knowledge and, in so doing, demonstrate that Descartes's epistemic program is not guilty of circularity. Second, I contend that Descartes's commitment to God's creation of the eternal truths is neither an embarrassment for Descartes nor a standd alone curiosity, but is central to Descartes's epistemic program, modal theory, and scientific method.
