Note 244 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

Dr. Brown (Philosophy of the Mind, Edinburgh, 1838, p. 172) calls Descartes ‘that illustrious rebel, who, in overthrowing the authority of Aristotle,’ &c. See also Duvernet, Hist. de la Sorbonne, vol. ii. p. 192; Cuvier, Hist. des Sciences, part ii. p. 532; and Locke's Works, vol. iii. p. 48. This, I need hardly say, refers to the habit of appealing to Aristotle, as if he were infallible, and is very different from that respect which is naturally felt for a man who was probably the greatest of all the ancient thinkers. The difference between the Aristotelian and Cartesian systems is touched on rather hastily in Cudworth's Intellect. Syst. vol. i. pp. 170, 171.