Question 1 Discussion

In this sentence the most important words are “good sense,” equitably divided” and “endowment.” 

“Good sense” is the subject of the sentence and, therefore, introduces a very important concept. What Descartes says about “good sense” follows the verb and makes a statement about “good sense,” namely that it is “an equitably divided endowment.”  To understand what follows, the reader needs to have a clear sense of the meaning of the word “equitably.” If misread, the reader is apt to reach a faulty conclusion.  If you rely on prefixes and suffixes to help you arrive at the meaning of words, you may think that Descartes is saying that this quality (i.e., good sense) is the same (equal) in all humans.   However, although “equi-” often means “equal” in this case you would be wrong. The issue here is “fairness” not “equality.”  The remaining words in the sentence provide a rationale for making the initial statement (signaled by the use of the word “for”).