A careful examination of descartes' works shows that innate ideas are not born with the mind, But are generated by (i.E., Born within) the mind. This is descartes' way of talking about empirical concept formation, As well as what the mind can infer from these concepts. Particular examples are examined to provide the material and formal conditions for identifying innate ideas. Descartes forces the transition from medieval to very modern epistemology.

The essays that make up this volume are sufficiently different in content and scope that a title any less universal would be misleading. The topics discussed vary from aspects of Plato's thought in the Republic to specialized problems within the work of the later Wittgenstein. Each of the essays is interesting and worth reading, but it is unlikely that most readers will find them uniformly appealing.