SELECTIONS FROM THE PRINCIPLES OF PHILOSOPHY

OF

RENE DESCARTES(1596-1650)

TRANSLATED BYJOHN VEITCH, LL. D.LATE PROFESSOR OF LOGIC AND RHETORIC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW

From the Publisher's Preface.

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

The work had been translated into French during Descartes' lifetime,and personally revised and corrected by him, the French text isevidently deserving of the same consideration as the Latinoriginals, and consequently, the additions and variations of theFrench version have also been given—the additions being put insquare 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 inthe present volume.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PRINCIPLES OF PHILOSOPHY

OF DESCARTES

TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN AND COLLATED WITH THE FRENCH

LETTER OF THE AUTHOR

TO THE FRENCH TRANSLATOR OF THE PRINCIPLES OF PHILOSOPHY SERVING FORA PREFACE.

Sir,—The version of my principles which you have been at pains tomake, is so elegant and finished as to lead me to expect that thework will be more generally read in French than in Latin, and betterunderstood. The only apprehension I entertain is lest the titleshould deter some who have not been brought up to letters, or withwhom philosophy is in bad repute, because the kind they were taughthas proved unsatisfactory; and this makes me think that it will beuseful to add a preface to it for the purpose of showing what theMATTER of the work is, what END I had in view in writing it, andwhat UTILITY may be derived from it. But although it might be mypart to write a preface of this nature, seeing I ought to know thoseparticulars better than any other person, I cannot neverthelessprevail upon myself to do anything more than merely to give asummary of the chief points that fall, as I think, to be discussedin it: and I leave it to your discretion to present to the publicsuch part of them as you shall judge proper.

I should have desired, in the first place, to explain in it whatphilosophy is, by commencing with the most common matters, as, forexample, that the word PHILOSOPHY signifies the study of wisdom, andthat by wisdom is to be understood not merely prudence in themanagement of affairs, but a perfect knowledge of all that man canknow, as well for the conduct of his life as for the preservation ofhis health and the discovery of all the arts, and that knowledge tosubserve these ends must necessarily be deduced from first causes;so that in order to study the acquisition of it (which is properlycalled philosophizing), we must commence with the investigation ofthose first causes which are called PRINCIPLES. Now these principlesmust possess TWO CONDITIONS: in the first place, they must be soclear and evident that the human mind, when it att

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