# The Philosophical Review/Volume 1/Review: Philosophy of Descartes

To one who has compared the present volume at all carefully with the complete works of the philosopher whose doctrine it is designed to give in substance, it is suggestive both of the possibilities and of the inevitable limitations of a volume of selections. Whether such books are calculated to promote sound scholarship, is a question which each succeeding volume of the series here represented will help to answer.
The selections are preceded by two brief introductory chapters, one on the "Life and Writings" of Descartes, the other on "The Philosophy of Descartes and its Influence." These treat only of the salient points of the philosopher's life and doctrine, and very properly leave it to the teacher to direct his students to the histories of philosophy for further information. The book is also provided with a bibliography and an index. As Professor Torrey states in his preface, the translations are made, with one exception, from the French text of Cousin's edition of Descartes's works. The extracts from the Principia are translated from the Latin text of an Elzevir edition of the Opera Philosophica, Amsterdam, 1677. It will be thought unfortunate by many that, in all cases except the one just indicated, the translator has neglected the Latin text. It was certainly proper to translate the Discours from the French, since that was the original text, but the Latin translation is somewhat important, since it was revised by Descartes himself and in some passages changed from the original. But whatever reasons there might have been for using only the French text of the Discours would seem to hold for using only the Latin text of the Meditationes, in the case of which work the conditions were exactly reversed. Very likely the translator might acknowledge this, and yet justify himself on the ground that the French edition of Cousin is the complete edition most readily procurable. Indeed, considering that this volume is intended for beginners, it may be that Professor Torrey has chosen the less of two evils; for certainly no volume of selections should be used where the complete text is not at hand for constant reference. The translations read very well, and seem ​to be accurate in all cases where they have been compared with the originals.
Of course there is room for much difference of opinion as to what should be included in a volume like this, but on the whole the selections seem to have been made with excellent judgment. Not only are entire paragraphs given, as a rule, but the portions of the different works from which selections have been made are ordinarily quite well represented. The selections are from the following works: Discours de la Méthode, Regulæ ad Directionem Ingenii, Meditationes de Prima Philosophia, Principia Philosophiæ, Le Monde, De l’Homme, and Traité des Passions de l’Ame. The selections from the Discours are from the first three parts only, the last three being omitted because they discuss matters treated in other writings. It certainly was a good idea to include a translation of the essential portions of the Regulæ. As will be remembered, Kuno Fischer says, "What the Discours compresses into four short rules, and only stipples, as it were, The Rules for the Direction of the Mind develop in detail, though not completely." The Meditationes seem to have been reduced only about twenty-five per cent, while the Principia is very inadequately represented by an extract of fourteen pages. Sixty-five pages are given to Le Monde — a liberal allowance; but here one misses the numerous explanatory diagrams, which, of course, it was impracticable to reproduce in a book of this kind. The extract from De l’Homme and that from a letter to Mersenne on the automatism of brutes together occupy only twelve pages, most of the remainder of the volume being devoted to the Traité. The last fifteen pages are taken up with extracts from letters by Descartes on the happy life and the highest good.
If one were to criticise the principle upon which the selections have been made, he would probably suggest that it would have been better to cover rather less ground somewhat more thoroughly. For instance, such fragments as are given from the Principia and De l’Homme are altogether inadequate, while one occasionally misses important passages in the selections from the Traité. As a volume of selections, however, the present one is in the main satisfactory. But the question arises, Why make a volume of selections from the works of Descartes at all? None of his most important works are very long. Professor Veitch has already given us a good translation of the Discours and the Meditationes entire, and of most of the Principia. Of this the teacher of philosophy can have his class use as much or as little as he pleases. Would not the translator of the present volume have done more to merit the gratitude of his fellow-teachers by giving them for class use an equally good complete translation of the Regulæ and the Traité, and also of Le Monde and De l’Homme, if space permitted and the omission of the diagrams (which ​might be too expensive to reproduce) did not seem too serious a disadvantage? Perhaps he may yet see fit to do so.
Ernest Albee.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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