Tree of knowledge (philosophy)
The tree of knowledge or tree of philosophy is a metaphor presented by the French philosopher René Descartes in the preface to the French translation of his work Principles of Philosophy. He describes the relations among the different parts of philosophy in a tree structure. The tree's roots are metaphysics, its trunk is physics, and its branches are all other "sciences", the principal of which are medicine, mechanics and morals.
This image is often assumed to show Descartes' break with the past and with the categorization of knowledge of the schools.