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''Principles of Philosophy'' ( la, Principia Philosophiae) is a book by
René Descartes
René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathem ...
. In essence, it is a synthesis of the ''
Discourse on Method
''Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences'' (french: Discours de la Méthode Pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences) is a philosophical and autobiographical ...
'' and ''
Meditations on First Philosophy
''Meditations on First Philosophy, in which the existence of God and the immortality of the soul are demonstrated'' ( la, Meditationes de Prima Philosophia, in qua Dei existentia et animæ immortalitas demonstratur) is a philosophical treatise ...
''.
[Guy Durandin, ''Les Principes de la Philosophie. Introduction et notes'', Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, Paris, 1970.] It was written in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, 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.
The book sets forth the principles of nature—the
Laws of Physics
Scientific laws or laws of science are statements, based on repeated experiments or observations, that describe or predict a range of natural phenomena. The term ''law'' has diverse usage in many cases (approximate, accurate, broad, or narrow) a ...
—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
Newton most commonly refers to:
* Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist
* Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton
Newton may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film
* 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
Newton's laws of motion are three basic laws of classical mechanics that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws can be paraphrased as follows:
# A body remains at rest, or in motion ...
. The book was primarily intended to replace the
Aristotelian curriculum then used in French and British universities. The work provides a systematic statement of his
metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
and
natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior throu ...
, and represents the first truly comprehensive,
mechanistic
The mechanical philosophy is a form of natural philosophy which compares the universe to a large-scale mechanism (i.e. a machine). The mechanical philosophy is associated with the scientific revolution of early modern Europe. One of the first expo ...
account of the universe.
Preface to the French edition
Descartes asked Abbot Claude Picot to translate his Latin ''Principia Philosophiae'' into French. For this edition, he wrote a preface disguised as a letter to the translator, whose title is "''Letter of the author to the translator of the book, that may be used as a preface''." This was published in 1647, a date already in the mature, final period of his life. In this writing, Descartes pours some reflexions about his idea of wisdom and philosophy. Its content may be summarized as follows.
Concept of philosophy
Philosophy is the study of ''wisdom'', understood as the ability to conduct the human activities; and also as the perfect knowledge of all the things that a man can know for the direction of his life, maintenance of his health, and knowledge of the arts. Only God is perfectly wise, and the man is more or less wise, in proportion to the knowledge he has of the most important truths.
The degrees of knowledge
Descartes identifies four degrees of knowledge, he names ''common'', and a fifth one he designates as ''higher''. The first degree consists on clear and evident notions that can be acquired without need of any meditation. The second degree is all that is learned by means of the senses. The third comprises what we learn when talking with other men. The fourth consists on what we can learn from the writings of men capable of giving good instructions.
Higher wisdom
There have been great men in all times that have sought after a better and more secure wisdom, a ''fifth degree'' of knowledge. This has consisted on the search for the ''first causes'', and those that have followed this pursuit have been named ''philosophers'', but he thinks that no one has been successful yet.
Doubt and certainty
Since Plato and Aristotle, there has been a discussion about doubt and certainty. Those that have favored doubt have arrived to extremes of doubting even the most evident things, and those that have sought certainty have relied excessively on the senses. Though it is true that it has been accepted that the senses may mislead us, according to Descartes, nobody had yet expressed that the truth can not be based on the senses, but in the ''understanding'', when it is founded on ''evident perceptions''.
Meditations on first philosophy
The search for the first causes, or basic truths, as undertaken by Descartes is contained in this work. It explains the
metaphysical principles on which to build the rest of knowledge.
The tree of philosophy
The philosophy is like a tree, whose roots are the ''metaphysics'', its trunk the ''physics'', and the branches the rest of sciences, mainly ''medicine'', ''mechanics'', and ''morals'' that is the last level of wisdom. In the same way that the tree has its fruits in its outer parts, the usefulness of philosophy is also contained in the parts that are learnt at the end.
Copies and modern editions
![Descartes swri](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Descartes_swri.JPG)
A copy of Descartes' ''Principia philosophiae'' dated 1656 is owned by the
Tom Slick
Thomas Baker Slick Jr. (May 6, 1916 – October 6, 1962) was a San Antonio, Texas-based inventor, businessman, adventurer, and heir to an oil business. Slick's father, Thomas Baker Slick Sr., a.k.a. "The King of the Wildcatters", had made ...
rare book collection at the
Southwest Research Institute
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, is an independent and nonprofit applied research and development (R&D) organization. Founded in 1947 by oil businessman Tom Slick, it provides contract research and develop ...
in Texas.
Reidel, a Dutch publisher, released an English edition of ''Principia philosophiae'' in 1983 (), translated by Valentine Rodger and Reese P. Miller with explanatory notes. Though a translation of the original 1644 Latin work, this edition by Rodger and Miller includes additional material from the 1647 French translation.
See also
*
Bucket argument Isaac Newton's rotating bucket argument (also known as Newton's bucket) was designed to demonstrate that true rotational motion cannot be defined as the relative rotation of the body with respect to the immediately surrounding bodies. It is one of ...
*
Conservation of momentum
In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass an ...
;Related works
*
''The World'' (Descartes)
* ''
Principia philosophiae cartesianae
''Principia philosophiae cartesianae'' (''PPC''; "The Principles of Cartesian Philosophy") or ''Renati Descartes principia philosophiae, more geometrico demonstrata'' ("The Principles of René Descartes' Philosophy, Demonstrated in Geometrical Ord ...
'' by
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...
References
External links
*
*
*Descartes' 164
''Principia philosophiae''(free Google eBook)
Selections from the ''Principles of Philosophy''at
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...
''Principles of Philosophy'', modified for easier reading''Principia philosophiae'' Amstelodami, apud Ludovicum Elzevirium, 1644. From th
Rare Book and Special Collections Divisionat the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Principles Of Philosophy
1644 books
Physics books
Works by René Descartes
Natural philosophy
17th-century Latin books