ABSTRACT
Descartes wished to stress in knowledge both the element of certainty and the element of discovery, and in his opinion no discovery could be effected through the syllogism. Memory, evidently, is to be the scaffolding with which the complete evidence of knowledge can dispense. Descartes looks forward to the complete articulation of knowledge in one single system. The suggestion that God would not stoop to deceive implies at first sight a concession to popular anthropomorphism which is as far as possible from Descartes's intentions. Though the practical method of Descartes's metaphysics is removed by its discursiveness from the synopsis of God, it can hardly be claimed that an admitted insight into the real, however gradually its aspects disclose themselves, positively misleads us as to the character of the real. Descartes has no intention of proceeding beyond the distinction between the soul and body.
