"X. [N]otions [but as born with us] which are simplest and self-evident., are obscured by logical definitions; and... are not to be reckoned among the cognitions acquired by study... [[Philosophy|[P]hilosophers]] erred in attempting to explain, by logical definitions, such truths as are most simple and self-evident; for they... render them more obscure. ...[W]hen I said... the proposition, I think, therefore I am, is... the first and most certain... I did not... deny that it was necessary to know what thought, existence, and certitude are, and... that, in order to think it is necessary to be... [etc.,] but, because these are the most simple notions, and... of themselves afford the knowledge of nothing existing, I did not judge it proper there to enumerate them."
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Principles of Philosophy
Principles of Philosophy (Latin: Principia philosophiae) is a book by René Descartes. It is basically a synthesis of the Discourse on the Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. The book sets forth the principles of nature—the Laws of Physics—as Descartes viewed them. It set forth the principle that in the absence of external forces, an object's motion will be uniform and in a straight line. Newton borrowed this principle from Descartes and included it in his own Philosophiæ Naturalis Princi
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