N.2/2023 Dalla teoria alla storia.  Attualità e metodi della Storia della Filosofia

L’ontologie rebelle de Dom Deschamps:  une physiologie de l’Entendement et des idées innées

Eleonora Alfano 

Published in December, 2023

​

 Dom Deschamps’s rebel ontology: a physiology of Entendement and innate ideas.

In as much as general ideas as innate are the object of Dom Deschamps’s metaphysics, his metaphysics does not unfold as a theory of knowledge, but rather as an ontology, and this is the reason why his materialist doctrine does not have an empiricist foundation. However, besides opposing metaphysics as a theory of knowledge of the Enlightenment, Deschamps has also overturned the classical meaning of ontology, for two main reasons. Firstly, in accordance with the ontological canon from Scotus to Wolff, he did not distinguish between general and special metaphysics: God and the soul correspond with sensitised ideas (‘incorporated’ into sensible ideas) of being in general. On the other hand, as distinct from tradition, he extends the domain of ontology beyond being in general (Le Tout) by also encompassing Rien (Tout). Surprising as it may seem, such a change in the structure of metaphysics is in line with Dom Deschamps’ materialist approach. Ultimately, both the innate ideas as immediately general and the Entendement have a physiological origin.

Dom Deschamps, ontology, innate ideas, empiricism, physiology.

DOI

10.53129/gcsi_02-2023-15