RESEARCH

INTO THE

ORIGIN OF THE DISCOVERIES

ATTRIBUTED

TO THE MODERNS.

FIRST PART.

CHAPTER ONE.

Method of DESCARTES, & his Logic. Art of thinking of LOCKE.

Systems of Descartes, Malebranche, Leibniz, & Locke, like those of the ancients.

9. For more than a century, several famous men have proposed, concerning logic and metaphysics, ideas that have appeared new. Descartes, Leibniz, Malebranche, and Locke have been regarded as innovators in these sciences, although they have put forward nothing that cannot also be found as clearly explained in the works of the ancients as in their own writings, as is easy to judge after a long examination of their principles when brought together and compared.

Logic of Descartes.

10. Before admitting any method, Descartes posits original: "Cartes. Princip. Philosophiæ, pars I. sect 1." as a first principle that once in a lifetime, he who seeks the truth must, as much as possible, doubt everything; and then he proposes four principal rules, in which all his logic consists original: "Cartes. Dissertatio de Methodo, sect. 2, p. 7, Ed. Amsterd. 1692, in 4°. apud Blaeu.".