In "Meditationes de prima philosophia" (1642), Descartes aims for a new foundation of metaphysics. This new beginning in philosophy, which Descartes advocates and implements like few others, has a conservative aspect: Descartes insists that his philosophy is the oldest that can exist, and this statement only makes sense if metaphysics is understood as a reconstruction of the original questions that initially set the philosophical and particularly metaphysical endeavor in motion. Therefore, with Descartes, we do not only begin systematic philosophy, which focuses on answering the questions themselves, but also a philosophy that engages with the treatment of the questions themselves in the confrontation with and the material of those positions it seeks to overcome. The central innovation of...