Selections from the Principles of Philosophy

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About this book

This volume reprints the preface and first part of Descartes' Principles of Philosophy, with selections from the second, third and fourth parts and an appendix containing part of his reply to the Second Objections, his formal demonstrations of the existence of Deity. The translation is by John Veitch and is based on the Latin edition of 1644.

In one passage Descartes describes four degrees of wisdom: notions clear of themselves, what the senses teach, what the conversation of other men teaches, and reading. He names Plato and Aristotle among those who searched for first causes. Numbered articles treat time as a mode of thinking, and number and universals as modes of thought, with a list of the five common universals: genus, species, difference, property and accident.

Philosophy

About the author

René Descartes

René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist often called the father of modern philosophy. He invented analytic geometry, argued for radical doubt as the path to certainty, and coined the phrase 'I think, therefore I am,' reshaping Western thought.