A Double Monstrosity: From causa sive ratio to sui causa|Una doppia mostruosità: da causa sive ratio a sui causa

This study delves into an examination of two expressions found in Descartes’ IVae Responsiones, surprising and even contradictory. The first expression defines the reason for the absence of a cause as a cause itself: “causa sive ratio propter quam causa non indiget” (AT VII, 236, 9-10). The second expression asserts that being is received by that which already possesses it: “idem a seipso suum esse accipere non posse” (AT VII, 210, 1). Remarkably, Descartes endorses both of these apparently conflicting statements. Furthermorethese two assertions contribute to defining God’s inexhausta potentia in a dual manner, a feature absent in the Meditationes. However, Descartes considers this dual determination crucial, describing it as “the first and principal, not to say the only, means we have of proving the existence of God” (AT VII, 238, 11-13). Indeed, this intricate situation, doubling the paradox, arises from the definition of the efficient cause. This study in philosophical lexicography seeks to elucidate aporias linked to the expressions causa sive ratio and sui causa in Descartes’ thought.