ABSTRACT
The general attitude of Descartes has already been noticed, and its value has been emphasized as a starting-point for a philosophical construction. It has also been indicated that, on its more positive side, it had serious deficiencies. The doctrine of representative ideas, as understood by Descartes, can be pretty easily explained. The subsequent history of the Cartesian school may be said to consist of little else than the gradual recognition of the futility. In general, however, it may be said that the final outcome of Cartesianism was not a dualism, but what may perhaps be best characterized as a form of objective idealism. The subjective idealism of Berkeley grew immediately out of the position of Locke; but it may also be connected pretty directly with that of Descartes. The philosophical doctrine of Agnosticism is the view that absolute reality is unknowable.
