Donte Ohlendorf

The Development Of Science Donte Ohlendorf

René Descartes, the originator of Cartesian doubt, put all beliefs, ideas, thoughts, and matter in doubt. He showed that his grounds, or reasoning, for any knowledge could just as well be false. Sensory experience, the primary mode of knowledge, is often erroneous and therefore must be doubted. His book, published in 1637, is one of the most important works in the history of modern science. In this slim book, Descartes ostensibly sets out to inform the reader, in a modest, informal, and very readable style, of his own educational development and pursuit of knowledge. However, by the end, he has set down a revolutionary new program for investigating the truth and laid the preliminary groundwork for Western civilization's most important and most influential achievement, modern science. The book is thus an essential text in the history of ideas. Ian Johnston's new translation is accompanied by a few explanatory footnotes to assist the reader and an introductory essay that discusses in more detail some important features of Descartes' argument and its influence.