Page:Discourse on the method of rightly conducting the reason, and seeking truth in the sciences - Descartes (trans. Veitch).djvu/15

the false. Descartes doubted, withheld his assent from the judgments bequeathed to him by education and authority, that he himself might determine which, and how many of these were true. By this act he implicitly asserted a right to decide upon the truth or falsity of what authority had laid down, and, therefore, the superiority to authority of another principle in the sphere of truth. This new principle was none other than Human Thought itself,—thought unfettered except by its own laws,—the intelligence acting within the limits prescribed to it by its own nature and constitution. But to proclaim free reflection as a principle superior to authority in the search after causes or reasons, was to proclaim the independence of philosophy,—to affirm that the deliverances of human thought were superior to the decrees of the Church. By his doubt, therefore, did Descartes challenge the propriety, and consummate the ruin of that philosophy known as Scholastic, whose foundations for the last two centuries had been gradually giving way, and chiefly under the influence of independent physical research. Under Scholasticism the human mind had other laws than its own,—thought was subordinated to authority, at first absolutely, then partially, and the whole activity of the mind was limited to the deduction of conclusions from principles which authority furnished. But in the new and pure philosophy of Descartes, the mind was set free to seek alike its principles and conclusions; authority was subordinated to thought.