The enormous impulse which even the most unscientific of the speculations of Descartes had given to European thought, was a standing temptation to philosophers, not to discard nor relax patient observation, but to bind together the results which they arrived at by this process, by means of some hardy hypothesis.
Morley reflects on the influence of Descartes on European thought, warning against the temptation to prioritize bold hypotheses over careful observation.
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