PREFACE.

...terms not yet explained: although this may seem to oppose the laws of the scientific method scientific method original: methodi scientificæ; for Wolff, this means a mathematical-style rigor where every term is defined and every proposition proven from prior ones, it could nevertheless be done without any danger. This is because these terms are understood through clear notions concepts that allow us to recognize a thing and distinguish it from others, even if we cannot yet list its specific internal characteristics which, although confused original: confusas; "confused" here does not mean "muddled," but rather "complex" or "un-analyzed"—knowledge where we know that a thing is, but not yet why or through what specific parts, are commonly encountered. However, the distinct notions of these terms knowledge that is broken down into its specific, defining parts do not enter into any demonstration as a principle before they are officially introduced.

If anyone should wonder, or even criticize, that in this work I define things which are already well enough recognized and distinguished from others through confused notions, and that I prove things which no sane person would doubt and which anyone would grant without proof; such a person does not understand my present undertaking at all. We are presenting the philosophy of being in general original: Philosophiam de ente in genere; Ontology, the study of the most basic properties shared by everything that exists: therefore, it is not enough merely to list its predicates attributes or qualities, whether they are absolute or relative. Instead, a reason must be given for why these predicates belong to being, so that we may be convinced a priori a priori reasoning from causes or definitions rather than from observation that they are correctly attributed, and can always be attributed, whenever the same conditions that the predicate requires are present.

For it is not enough that certain propositions are "clear" simply because of the confused notions that correspond to them; rather, having performed an unfolding original: evolutione; the process of analyzing a concept into its constituent parts of those notions, it must be shown what is contained within them. Only then can we judge that a predicate cannot be separated from the notion of its subject. Examples only serve to illustrate propositions suggested by experience; they by no means establish the universality of those propositions. Such universality is only placed in the open original: in aprico posita; clearly established or made evident [when...]