Descartes' notion of causa sui

Abstract

Anselm unites to Occam, Nietzsche to Thomas Aquinas, Augustinus to Suarez, Duns Scot to Schopenhauer in the rejection of the notion of causa sui that Descartes resents and supports in his work. However, the notion of God causa sui is not a marginal aspect in the cartesian metaphysics but a central topic, although it seemed to have been presented in an almost occult key, without hiding it but slipping for not getting the attention. This paper deals with the way in that Descartes introduces it, the way he develops it, and the onto-teo-logical consequences that it carries, especially in what refers to the conception of God as potency.