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Title: Why Matter can’t think: Suárez, Descartes, and Leibniz on Things and Properties

Abstract: Descartes spoke of properties of things as modes: thus sizes and shapes are modes of bodies. This notion had its roots in the scholastic tradition and was well developed in the thought of Francisco Suárez. It became quite important in the early modern period, but its significance has not been fully appreciated. In this paper I discuss a crucial early modern change in the notion of a mode and its role in related, yet interestingly different, arguments against thinking matter in Descartes and Leibniz.