A rectangular decorative woodcut headpiece featuring elaborate scrolling acanthus leaves surrounding a central circular medallion. Within the medallion is a sunburst or radiant star with rays extending outward; three small star-like symbols (possibly fleurs-de-lis) are arranged vertically in the center of the emblem.

PREFACE.

First Philosophy original: Philosophia prima; this is another name for Metaphysics, the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, and identity. was once adorned with enviable praises by the Scholastics The Scholastics were medieval scholars and theologians who used a specific system of logic and philosophy based on Aristotle; by Wolff’s time, their methods were often criticized for being overly complex or detached from reality.; but, after Cartesian Philosophy The philosophical system of René Descartes (1596–1650), which emphasized doubt, the use of reason, and mathematical certainty. grew strong, it was brought into contempt and exposed to everyone's mockery. For Descartes original: Cartesius began to philosophize clearly and distinctly, so that terms are not admitted unless an obvious, clear concept corresponds to them, or they consist of a definition that can be broken down into simpler concepts of that kind, and so that things are explained in an intelligible way through their internal reasons. In First Philosophy, however, the definitions of terms were for the most part more obscure than the terms themselves, and the rules—or canons, as they called them—were no less obscure than they were ambiguous, so that