Discourse on the Method and the Principles of Philosophy

EN · English

Two foundational works of modern philosophy in one volume, read in full in John Veitch's classic English translation: the Discourse on the Method (1637), with Descartes' rules for directing the reason, his provisional morality, and the proof of God and the soul that begins from universal doubt and reaches the certainty 'I think, therefore I am' — then the Principles of Philosophy (1644), his systematic textbook of the whole of philosophy in four parts, from the principles of human knowledge to the visible world and the earth. After each of the 18 parts, a detailed scholarly commentary works through the argument step by step. For anyone ready to finally hear the two books that started modern philosophy — and have every argument explained on the way. Long after the last chapter, one feeling remains: you know why you are certain of one thing only — and you have heard Descartes build the world from it.