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 Principia Philosophiæ, 1656 | |
| Author | René Descartes |
|---|---|
| Original title | Principia Philosophiæ |
| Translator | Abbot Claude Picot (French) |
| Language | Latin |
| Genre | Philosophy,scientific law |
| Published | 1644 |
Principles of Philosophy (Latin:Principia Philosophiae) is a book by the French philosopher and scientistRené Descartes. In essence, it is a synthesis of theDiscourse on Method andMeditations on First Philosophy.[1] It was written inLatin, published in 1644 and dedicated toElisabeth 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—thelaws 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.Isaac Newton borrowed this principle from Descartes and included it in his ownPrincipia; to this day, it is still generally referred to asNewton's first law of motion.[2] The book was primarily intended to replace theAristotelian curriculum then used in French and British universities. The work provides a systematic statement of hismetaphysics andnatural philosophy, and represents the first truly comprehensive,mechanistic account of the universe.
Descartes asked Abbot Claude Picot to translate his LatinPrincipia 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, when he was 51 years old and in the mature, final period of his life. In this writing, Descartes provides some reflections on his ideas of wisdom and philosophy. Its content may be summarized as follows:[3]
Philosophy is the study ofwisdom, 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.
Descartes identifies four degrees of knowledge which he namescommon, and a fifth degree he designateshigher. The first degree consists of clear and evident notions that can be acquired without the need for any meditation. The second degree is all that is learned by means of the senses. The third comprises what we learn when talking with others. The fourth consists of what we can learn from the writings of those capable of giving good instructions.
There have been great people throughout history who have pursued a better and more secure wisdom, afifth degree of knowledge. This has consisted of the search for thefirst causes, and those that have followed this pursuit have been namedphilosophers, but he thinks that none have yet been successful.
SincePlato andAristotle, there has been discussion on doubt and certainty. Those that have favoured doubt have arrived at extremes of doubting even the most evident things, and those that have sought certainty have relied excessively on the senses. Though 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 theunderstanding, when it is founded onevident perceptions.
The search for the first causes, or basic truths, as undertaken by Descartes is contained in this work. It explains themetaphysical principles on which to build the rest of knowledge.
Descartes describes philosophy as like a tree, whose roots aremetaphysics, its trunkphysics, and the branches are the rest of the sciences, mainlymedicine,mechanics, andmorals that is the last level of wisdom. In the same way that trees have fruits in their outer parts, the usefulness of philosophy is also contained in the areas that stem from its foundation.
There are four parts:
A copy of Descartes'Principia philosophiae dated 1656 is owned by theTom Slick rare book collection at theSouthwest Research Institute in Texas. The book was translated into Italian in 1722 byGiuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola [it]. (Cf. C. Landolfi,Giuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola: Opere scelte, Mirista-moderna, Salerno 2024)
D. Reidel, a Dutch publisher, released an English edition ofPrincipia philosophiae in 1983 (ISBN 90-277-1451-7), 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.
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