Selections from the Principles of Philosophy

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Selections from The Principles of Philosophy

Of

Rene Descartes

(1596-1650)

Translated by John Veitch

Principles of Philosophy is a book by Rene Descartes. In essence, it is a synthesis of the Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy It was written in Latin, published in 1644 and dedicated to Elisabeth of Bohemia, with whom Descartes had a long-standing friendship. A French version (Les Principes de la Philosophie) followed in 1647. It set forth the principles of nature--the Laws of Physics--as Descartes viewed them. Most notably, it set forth the principle that in the absence of external forces, an object's motion will be uniform and in a straight line. Newton borrowed this principle from Descartes and included it in his own Principia; to this day, it is still generally referred to as Newton's First Law of Motion.

The present volume contains a reprint of the preface and the first part of the Principles of Philosophy, together with selections from the second, third and fourth parts of that work, corresponding to the extracts in the French edition of Gamier, are also given, as well as an appendix containing part of Descartes' reply to the Second Objections (viz., his formal demonstrations of the existence of Deity). The translation is based on the original Latin edition of the Principles, published in 1644.

The work had been translated into French during Descartes' lifetime, and personally revised and corrected by him, the French text is evidently deserving of the same consideration as the Latin originals, and consequently, the additions and variations of the French version have also been given--the additions being put in square brackets in the text and the variations in the footnotes.

A copy of the title-page of the original edition, as given in Dr. C. Guttler's work (Munich: C. H. Beck. 1901), are also reproduced in the present volume.

Genre: Philosophy / General (fancy, right?)