Principia philosophiae cartesianae

Principia philosophiae cartesianae

First edition title page, Published in 1663.
Author	Benedictus de Spinoza
Language	Latin

Principia philosophiae cartesianae (PPC; "The Principles of Cartesian Philosophy") or Renati Descartes principia philosophiae, more geometrico demonstrata ("The Principles of René Descartes' Philosophy, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order") is a philosophical work of Baruch Spinoza published in Amsterdam in 1663. In the preface to this work, Ludovic Meyer explains that it is a reconstruction of René Descartes' Principles of Philosophy in the Euclidean or "geometric" fashion. In the appendix, a series of non-geometric prose passages entitled Metaphysical Thoughts [Cogitata Metaphisica], Spinoza explicates Descartes' views on traditional metaphysical topics (including essence, existence, idea, potential, necessity, contingency, duration, and time) while furtively interpolating some of his own.

English translations

Unlike other works by Spinoza (see the corresponding section in that article), this text has only rarely been translated into English.

• 1985 by Edwin Curley, in the first volume of The Collected Works of Spinoza (Princeton University Press).

• 1998 by Samuel Shirley, with an Introduction and notes by Steven Barbone y Lee Rice (Hacket Publications). Later added to the edition of Spinoza's Complete Works in one volume, with introduction and notes by Michael L. Morgan (also Hacket Pbs).