Selections from the Principles of Philosophy

The six meditations where Descartes doubts everything he knows until he reaches a certainty he cannot doubt. This edition adds short bracketed explanations, so the argument is easy to follow step by step.

René Descartes

Descartes tells how he decided to doubt everything and rebuild knowledge from a single certainty: I think, therefore I am. The short, personal book that launched modern rationalism.

René Descartes

Spinoza builds his whole philosophy like geometry, from definitions and axioms to God, mind, emotions and freedom. The most ambitious system of 17th-century rationalism, in the classic Elwes translation.

Benedict de Spinoza

Spinoza reads the Bible with the tools of reason and defends freedom of thought against religious and political authority. The book that made him the most controversial philosopher of his time.

Baruch Spinoza

Spinoza's short, personal treatise on how to cure the mind of error and reach true knowledge. A great first step before tackling the Ethics.

Benedict de Spinoza