Download or read book Descartes and the First Cartesians written by Roger Ariew and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roger Ariew presents a new account of Descartes as a philosopher who sought to engage his contemporaries and society. He argues that the Principles of Philosophy was written to rival Scholastic textbooks, and considers Descartes' enterprise in contrast to the tradition it was designed to replace and in relation to the works of the first Cartesians.