No it doesn ' t . No it doesn ' t . No it doesn ' t . No it doesn ' t . No it doesn ' t . No it doesn ' t . No it doesn ' t . No it doesn ' t . No it doesn ' t . <| sep |> Yes , I think that ' s a fair thing to say . I think there is certainly a shift , and much more emphasis is placed on epistemology , but it ' s possibly a bit of an oversimplification to say that Descartes absolutely starts with epistemology as first philosophy . In much the same way that there is an interpretation of Leibniz ' s metaphysics that is sometimes known as superessentialism many scholars accept this interpretation , but others argue that a more subtle reading of Leibniz will reveal that he was much more nuanced than all that . There are undoubtedly people who have the same arguments about Descartes . This is why I was careful to point out that it is just an interpretation of Descartes ' role in the history of philosophy .