Page:Philosophical Review Volume 12.djvu/478

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
462
THE PHILOSOPHICAL REVIEW.
[Vol. XII.

his treatise Le monde and was disposed to publish the former. In November, 1635, he had decided to add to the Dioptrics another chapter of the Le monde, the Météores, and to write a preface. The preface developed into the Discours de la méthode, and was completed by March, 1636. To the Dioptrics and Météores was added the Geometric. These three treatises, which followed the Discours de la méthode, were later entitled "Essais de cette méthode." The four were published anonymously in 1637 at Leyden. In 1638 the publication of Le monde was definitely abandoned, and Descartes turned his attention to medicine. The article discusses the correspondence to 1638, and in a postscript is added an inquiry into the amount of time spent on metaphysical problems in 1629, in which Pfeffer attempts to show that the figure 9 in the letter of April 15, 1630, should be amended to read 4. This would make the work on the metaphysics extend to the end of July, 1629, and would reconcile the letters of October 8, 1629, November 13, 1629, and April 15, 1630.

W. A. H.
Ueber Aufgabe und Methode in den Beweisen der Analogien der Erfahrung in Kanf's Kr. d. r. V. Ernst von Aster. A. f. G. Ph., IX, 2, pp. 218-251; IX, 3, pp. 334-366.

In these two articles on problem and method in the proofs of the analogies of experience in the Kr. d. r. V., von Aster states the general problem of epistemology in the Kantian philosophy and then examines its solution under the following rubrics : (1) Synthetic judgments a priori as an epistemological question; (2) Kant's solution of the question in reference to mathematical propositions; (3) the logical necessity of the fundamental propositons of the pure understanding in the Kr. d. r. V.; (4) conditions of the knowledge of reality; (5) the Transcendental Æsthetic as basis of the proof of the analogies [forms of pure perception]; (6) knowledge of reality and experience; (7) the notion of object [supplementary defence of the foregoing in reference to the thing-in-itself]; (8) deduction of the notion of the pure understanding and proofs of the analogies; (9) proofs of the separate analogies of experience. The purpose of the articles is to show how the proofs of the analogies depend on the Transcendental ^Esthetic and Analytic. From the major premise: "The objects of experience are in space and time," the following conclusions are drawn: (1) A persistent substance underlies the objects of experience; (2) the objects, in so far as they occupy a point in time or are events in time, are subject to the law of causality; in so far as they are simultaneous, they are subject to the law of reciprocal action. W. A. H.