Principia Philosophica ... (bound with) Specimina Philosophiae: ... 2 vols. in one.

This is a rare or used book from the Berkelouw Rare Books Department.

Amstelodami: Blaviana, 1692. Small quarto, bound in original full vellum with black hand-lettered title on spine. (xl, 222, xvi, 248pp.). With engraved portrait; title-vignettes; numerous woodblock illustrations, some of which are full-page; and illustrated chapter initials. Text in Latin. With a fine Latin inscription on front fly-leaf. Bookplate on front pastedown. The French mathematician and philosopher Ren?? Descartes (1596-1650), resident in the Netherlands for the greater portion of his productive life, is often referred to as the father of modern philosophy. He sought to establish a sound, rational foundation for knowledge, from first principles, without resorting to any pre-existing dogma or authority. Descartes' Principia Philosophi (Principles of Philosophy) was first published in Latin in 1644, following the publications of Discourse on the Method (in French, 1637) and Meditations on First Philosophy (in Latin, 1641). It is a synthesis of Descartes' thinking, covering his metaphysics and natural philosophy, the latter resting on the foundations of the former. Principles includes discussions of Descartes' famous First Certainty, "cogito ergo sum", here "ego cogito, ergo sum" ("I think therefore I am") and Cartesian dualism, that the mind and body are separate entities, one material, the other incorporeal, nonetheless capable of interaction (The Philosophy Book 2011, p. 123). Bound together with Specimina Philosophi?, the first Latin translation of Descartes' Discourse on the Method, an autobiographical early formulation of his philosophy, revised since first publication in French in 1637. As the lingua franca of the day, Latin-language publication allowed for wider dissemination.