René Descartes: Principles of Philosophy: Translated, with Explanatory NotesDescartes's Principles 0. / Philosophy is his longest and most ambitious work; it is the only work in which he attempted to actually deduce scientific knowledge from Cartesian metaphysics, as he repeatedly claimed was possible. Whatever the success of this attempt, there can be no doubt that it was enormously influential. Cartesian celestial mechanics held sway for well over a century, and some of the best minds of that period, including Leibniz, Malebranche, Euler, and the Bernoullis, attempted to modify and quantify the Cartesian theory of vortices into an acceptable alternative to Newton's theory of universal gravitation. Thus, the Principles is not only of inherent and historical interest philosophically but is also a seminal document in the history of science and of 17th Century thought. Principles of Philosophy was first published in Latin, in 1644. In 1647, a French translation, done by the Abbe Claude Picot and containing a great deal of additional material and a number of alterations in the original text, was published with Descartes's enthusiastic approval. Unlike some English translations of portions of the Principles, this translation uses the Latin text as its primary source; however, a good deal of additional material from Picot's translation has been included. There are several reasons for this. First, there is good evidence that Descartes himself was responsible for some of the additional material, including, of course, the Preface to the French translation. |
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René Descartes: Principles of Philosophy: Translated, with Explanatory Notes No preview available - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
adhere AEIO aether agitation angles attribute body cause circle clearly Comet composed Concerning consider contained continue Copernican system Copernicus corporeal substance created deduced Descartes Descartes's Dioptrics direction diverse drive easily ecliptic entirely equal equator exist explained extension exterior earth extremely fact figure Finally fire fixed Stars flow fluid force French text grooved particles heaven heavenly globules heavenly matter interstices Jupiter larger Latin less light magnet mind modes Moon motion move movement nature niter North pole occur pass perceive Philosophy piece of iron Planets Plate pores Principles Ptolemaic system quantity rapidly rays reason recede Regiomontanus remain rest result revolve rotated Saturn scrapings second element sensations senses separated similarly situated smaller solely solid South pole space speed spherical spots straight line strive substance sufficiently sunspots suppose surface surrounding terrestrial particles things third element thought tiny Tychonic system understand vortex vortices