Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry
E382800
Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry is a major philosophical study by Bernard Williams that offers a rigorous and influential interpretation of René Descartes’ epistemology and the ambitions of his method of doubt.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3706321 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry Context triple: [Bernard Williams, notableWork, Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry]
-
A.
Principles of Cartesian Philosophy
Principles of Cartesian Philosophy is Baruch Spinoza’s early systematic exposition and critique of René Descartes’ philosophy, presented in a geometric, axiomatic style that anticipates his later work.
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B.
A Short History of Modern Philosophy
A Short History of Modern Philosophy is a concise survey of major Western philosophers from Descartes to Wittgenstein, written as an accessible introduction to modern philosophical thought.
-
C.
On the History of Modern Philosophy
On the History of Modern Philosophy is a series of late lectures by German idealist philosopher F. W. J. Schelling that critically surveys and interprets the development of modern philosophy from Descartes onward.
-
D.
Meditations on First Philosophy
Meditations on First Philosophy is René Descartes’ foundational philosophical treatise in which he employs radical doubt to establish certain knowledge and famously argues for the distinction between mind and body.
-
E.
Epistemology Without a Knowing Subject
Epistemology Without a Knowing Subject is a philosophical work by Karl Popper that develops his theory of objective knowledge by arguing that knowledge can be understood independently of any particular knowing subject.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry Target entity description: Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry is a major philosophical study by Bernard Williams that offers a rigorous and influential interpretation of René Descartes’ epistemology and the ambitions of his method of doubt.
-
A.
Principles of Cartesian Philosophy
Principles of Cartesian Philosophy is Baruch Spinoza’s early systematic exposition and critique of René Descartes’ philosophy, presented in a geometric, axiomatic style that anticipates his later work.
-
B.
A Short History of Modern Philosophy
A Short History of Modern Philosophy is a concise survey of major Western philosophers from Descartes to Wittgenstein, written as an accessible introduction to modern philosophical thought.
-
C.
On the History of Modern Philosophy
On the History of Modern Philosophy is a series of late lectures by German idealist philosopher F. W. J. Schelling that critically surveys and interprets the development of modern philosophy from Descartes onward.
-
D.
Meditations on First Philosophy
Meditations on First Philosophy is René Descartes’ foundational philosophical treatise in which he employs radical doubt to establish certain knowledge and famously argues for the distinction between mind and body.
-
E.
Epistemology Without a Knowing Subject
Epistemology Without a Knowing Subject is a philosophical work by Karl Popper that develops his theory of objective knowledge by arguing that knowledge can be understood independently of any particular knowing subject.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
philosophical study ⓘ |
| academicDiscipline |
epistemology
ⓘ
history of early modern philosophy ⓘ philosophy ⓘ |
| aimsTo |
assess the coherence of Descartes’ quest for certainty
ⓘ
clarify the ambitions of Descartes’ method of doubt ⓘ situate Descartes in the development of modern philosophy ⓘ |
| author | Bernard Williams ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
Cartesian foundationalism
ⓘ
Cartesian skepticism ⓘ Descartes’ project of securing certainty ⓘ Meditations on First Philosophy ⓘ clear and distinct perceptions ⓘ cogito argument ⓘ modern conception of the subject ⓘ role of God in Descartes’ epistemology ⓘ |
| genre |
epistemology
ⓘ
history of philosophy ⓘ philosophy ⓘ |
| hasPerspective |
critical interpretation of Descartes
ⓘ
emphasis on epistemological project over metaphysics ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Cartesianism
ⓘ
René Descartes ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
Descartes’ epistemology
ⓘ
René Descartes ⓘ method of doubt ⓘ |
| notableFor |
impact on Descartes scholarship
ⓘ
influential interpretation of Cartesian doubt ⓘ rigorous analysis of Descartes’ epistemology ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition |
analytic philosophy
ⓘ
early modern philosophy ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
certainty
ⓘ
foundationalism ⓘ internalism in epistemology ⓘ self-knowledge ⓘ skepticism ⓘ subject–object distinction ⓘ |
| relatedPhilosopher |
David Hume
ⓘ
Immanuel Kant ⓘ René Descartes ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Meditations on First Philosophy
ⓘ
Principles of Philosophy ⓘ |
| usedIn |
university courses on Descartes
ⓘ
university courses on early modern philosophy ⓘ university courses on epistemology ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry Description of subject: Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry is a major philosophical study by Bernard Williams that offers a rigorous and influential interpretation of René Descartes’ epistemology and the ambitions of his method of doubt.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.