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“We now recognize that Newton intended his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy specifically to replace Descartes's own Principles of Philosophy, which was first published in Amsterdam in 1644.” -Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
FIRST EDITION of Descartes’s Principia Philosophiae, the first
attempt at a completely mechanistic account of the universe and the
direct antecedent to Newton’s Principia of 1687. Descartes’s
mathematicized, strictly mechanistic approach to science and the success
of his attack on Aristotelianism represented an enormous step forward at
the dawn of what we now call the Scientific Revolution. The
Principles of Philosophy was the only complete version of
Descartes’s natural philosophy published in his lifetime and the first
published work in which he presents and defends his vortex theory, the
core of his heliocentric model of the universe. Bound with (as often)
the first Latin edition of Discourse on Method, including the
first appearance of Descartes's famous Latin phrase "cogito ergo sum."
Illustrated with numerous in-text diagrams. The relationship between the dates of publication of Descartes’s works and his actual research is complicated. By 1633 Descartes had completed most of his investigations in physics, the culmination of which was the composition of Le Monde between 1629 and 1633. However, after Galileo was called before the Inquisition in 1633, Descartes decided against publication of that work; indeed, Le Monde was never published during his lifetime. After 1633, Descartes turned from physics to epistemology, a shift in focus that led to his philosophical masterpiece, Discourse de la Methode, published in 1637 (and here included in the first Latin edition of 1644). The Discourse on Method was written as an introductory essay to three separate essays which summarized the results of Descartes’s scientific work. What made the volume puzzling to Descartes’s supporters and critics alike was that his results were presented without demonstrations of the validity of his findings. Again, as with Le Monde (from which the three essays were derived), Descartes believed they were too controversial to publish in any detail.
It wasn’t until the publication of the Principia in 1644 that Descartes offered a complete and detailed account of his natural philosophy. As his critics had anticipated, Descartes’s Principia did include a repudiation of Aristotle’s twin notions of form and substance, an entirely materialist natural philosophy and a heliocentric model of the universe. By 1663 his Principia was on the Church’s list of banned books and, until Newton’s own Principia appeared in 1687, was the pre-eminent scientific system in the world. Principia Philosophiae. Amsterdam: Ludovic Elzevier, 1644. WITH: Specimina Philosophiae: seu Dissertatio de Methodo recte regendae rationis, & veritatis in scientiis investigandae: Dioptrice, et Meteora. Ex Gallico translata, & Ab auctore perlecta, variisque in locis emmendata. Amsterdam: Elzevier, 1644. Quarto, contemporary full vellum. Repairs to hinges. Institutional stamp on title. Worming at beginning and end of book at the inner top margins (affecting a few letters), browning to a few gatherings. Overall, a handsome copy of a rare and important volume. $14,500. |
