Preface.

I am assured that he will not only understand the matter well and grasp my meaning correctly, but also retain no doubt as to its correctness. I well know that many will find this work much too laborious, because they will want to read this book as nimbly as they are accustomed to reading others; however, they must also accept that they will not understand everything, nor attain that insight into the truths presented therein which they would have reached had they approached the matter with proper seriousness. It is certainly no small matter for us to have distinctness distinctness: German "Deutlichkeit." In the rationalist tradition, a concept is distinct when one can clearly enumerate its internal characteristics, not just recognize it as a whole. in our first general concepts; concepts: German "Begriffe." These are the mental building blocks of thought. for by this a light is kindled for us that shines throughout all our knowledge, knowledge: German "Erkåntnis" (cognition). This refers to the entire range of human perception and intellectual understanding. whether we en—