Abstract

The author develops some preliminary considerations and commentary on the essay on the evolution of Rene´ Descartes’ thought written in 1896-1897 by the German philosopher Paul Natorp. In the essay Natorp re-examines critically both Descartes’ philosophy and his own previous interpretation of it, outlined in the monograph Descartes’ Erkenntnistheorie. Eine Studie zur Vorgeschichte des Kritizismus , where the French philosopher was portraited as the true great forerunner of Kantian criticism. In the essay Natorp clearly speaks of Descartes’ “metaphysical relapse” from his native critical impulse to the “coarse dualism” of the Meditationes de prima philosophia. According to Natorp, the real difference between the “first” and the “second” Descartes depends on the new notion of Substance expounded in the Meditationes, which makes “God’s truthfulness” the only absolute standard of truth