Page:Discourse on the method of rightly conducting the reason, and seeking truth in the sciences - Descartes (trans. Veitch).djvu/41

, who, by identifying Substance and Force, sought to give a principle of subsistence to created substances; and thus to vindicate to the finite a real as opposed to a phænomenal existence.

But Cartesianism stands related to subsequent thinking, not only by the development of its positive doctrines, but likewise by the continuance in the current of subsequent speculation of its exclusive tendency.

4. The tendency in the main of Cartesianism is to Rationalism and Idealism, and by this character it has, in a very marked manner, influenced and determined the current of subsequent speculation.

By Rationalism in Philosophy is to be understood the taking into account those elements or conditions of knowledge which, in the act of knowledge, are the contribution of the thinking subject itself. Every Philosophy is to the extent of its recognition of such elements Rationalist. The term is, however, more generally employed to denote, in addition to the simple recognition of such elements, the attribution to them of an undue importance or rank, so as to exclude a due regard to, or even the recognition of such elements as, in the act of knowledge, arise from the object. In this latter and abusive sense the term is applicable to Cartesianism; for the tendency, as a whole and in general, of the Philosophy of, is to elevate the purely subjective elements of knowledge above the objective,—the