Kingston Philosophy Café

Roger Jennings will present a paper examining the following:

1. the concept of 'extended substance' expounded by French philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650) and how it led him to deny the possibility of a vacuum  and to assert the infinite extension and divisibility of matter;

2. the arguments of English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) that our idea of 'substance' represents an "an uncertain supposition of we know not what" and that the essential attributes of physical substance include more than just extension;

3. the degree to which conceptual issues regarding 'substance' remain problematic for our modern understanding of the universe and all that it contains.