Discourse on the Method

Born in 1596 in the town of La Haye, France (now named Descartes after its most famous
resident) Rene Descartes was the son of a moderately wealthy landowner and councilor in
Brittany, and enjoyed the rank of a mid-level nobleman. Raised Catholic by his maternal
grandmother after the death of his mother, he lived in an area controlled by Protestant Huguenots
and would have experienced religious discrimination common at the time.

Descartes received a well-rounded education at a Jesuit college in France where he studied Greek
and Roman classics, government, mathematics, and the arts as well as metaphysics. He earned a
degree in law in 1616 but was too young to join the parliament, so he continued his studies in
mathematics and architecture in the Netherlands for almost two years. He then continued his
education by traveling throughout all of Europe.. During this time, Descartes developed the
method of deductive reasoning that would be the basis for his Discourse on the Method. He also
invented analytic geometry during this time, a method of using algebra to solve geometry
problems and vice versa. He was interested in the esoteric teachings of the Rosicrucian society, a
group of scholars devoted to the knowledge of ancient wisdom. Descartes was friends with many
artists, mathematicians, and radical intellectuals that were his contemporaries. He moved often to
avoid persecution and devoted his talents to improving people's lives through science, medicine,
and philosophy.

Descartes advanced the study of mathematics, science, and philosophy and is credited as being
the father of modern philosophy. He developed a concept known as ''mind-body dualism'' or the
''mind-body problem,'' which is the idea that the mind is separate from the material body. He
questioned the nature of consciousness and the nature of self and explored how the physical body
both influences and differs from one's mental state. He also philosophically argued for the
existence of God and famously postulated that what distinguished man from beast is the ability
to think and reason and possession of a human soul. The historical impact of his work includes
the connection between geometry and algebra, his contribution to the understanding of matter,
and his philosophical basis for scientific exploration. Rene Descartes is one of the most
important thinkers of the Enlightenment. His writings are still widely respected and read today:

Discourse on the Method

Principles of Philosophy

Passions of the Soul

Letters

World, or Treatise on Light

Treatise on Man

Rules for the Direction of the Mind

1
The Origins and Overview of the Discourse on the Method

Descartes' Discourse on the Method is regarded as one of the most important advancements in
the philosophy and science of modern thinking. It is an exercise in epistemology, which is a
philosophical term used to describe the study of how we know what we know, or the study of
how knowledge is created. Descartes used his knowledge of mathematics, metaphysics, physics,
and mechanics to form a working method on how to examine reality and derive known truths
from our observations. His intention was to establish a basic set of rules that can be employed to
find irrefutable truth using metaphysical principles. Descartes advocates for the necessity of
doubt as a method to test one's certainty. To reach a truthful conclusion, one must begin with the
examination of doubts. The way to reach certainty is to fully investigate any doubts on a subject
and meticulously break the subject's concepts down into its most basic parts. Descartes argues
that to seek knowledge, one must begin with skepticism, and question all preconceived ideas
about a topic to start with a fresh perspective that is untarnished by the ideas of others. A healthy
questioning of all notions that have come before allows the thinker to explore ideas on their own
and this makes skepticism a healthy foundation for the creation of knowledge. This method of
doubt beginning with skepticism is considered Descartes' seminal contribution to the framework
of modern scientific and philosophical thinking.

Descartes' Discourse on the Method is organized into six parts that are outlined in his preface to
the work. The most famous line of the text is ''Cogito, ergo sum'' or ''I think therefore I am.'' In
this statement, Descartes establishes mental reality as of primary function over all other aspects
of material existence. Further, Descartes distinguishes between humans and brutes (animals);
attempts to prove that God exists; and emphasizes the importance of mathematics in
philosophical pursuits. His embrace of skepticism and his legacy are readily apparent in the
postmodernism movement today.

Summary

Discourse on the Method is Descartes’ attempt to explain his method of reasoning through even
the most difficult of problems. He illustrates the development of this method through brief
autobiographical sketches interspersed with philosophical arguments.

Part 1 contains “various considerations concerning the sciences.” First, all people possess “good
sense,” the ability to distinguish truth from fiction. Therefore, it is not a lack of ability that
obstructs people but their failure to follow the correct path of thought. The use of a method can
elevate an average mind above the rest, and Descartes considered himself a typical thinker
improved by the use of his method. Descartes benefited from a superior education, but he
believed that book learning also clouded his mind. After leaving school, he set off traveling to
learn from “the great book of the world” with an unclouded mind. He comes to the conclusion
that all people have a “natural light” that can be obscured by education and that it is as important
to study oneself as it is to study the world.

In part 2, Descartes describes his revelation in the “stove-heated room.” Contemplating various
subjects, he hits on the idea that the works of individuals are superior to those conceived by
committee because an individual’s work follows one plan, with all elements working toward the

2
same end. He considers that the science he learned as a boy is likely flawed because it consists of
the ideas of many different men from various eras. Keeping in mind what he has learned of logic,
geometry, and algebra, he sets down the following rules: (1) to never believe anything unless he
can prove it himself; (2) to reduce every problem to its simplest parts; (3) to always be orderly in
his thoughts and proceed from the simplest part to the most difficult; and (4) to always, when
solving a problem, create a long chain of reasoning and leave nothing out. He immediately finds
this method effective in solving problems that he had found too difficult before. Still fearing that
his own misconceptions might be getting in the way of pure reason, he decides to systematically
eliminate all his wrong opinions and use his new method exclusively.

In part 3, Descartes puts forth a provisional moral code to live by while rethinking his views: (1)
to obey the rules and customs of his country and his religion and never take an extreme opinion;
(2) to be decisive and stick with his decisions, even if some doubts linger; (3) to try to change
himself, not the world; and (4) to examine all the professions in the world and try to figure out
what the best one is. Not surprising, Descartes determines that reasoning and searching for the
truth is, if not the highest calling, at least extremely useful. For many years after his revelation,
Descartes traveled widely and gained a reputation for wisdom, then retired to examine his
thoughts in solitude.

In part 4, Descartes offers proofs of the existence of the soul and of God. Contemplating the
nature of dreams and the unreliability of the senses, he becomes aware of his own process of
thinking and realizes it is proof of his existence: I think, therefore I exist (Cogito ergo sum). He
also concludes that the soul is separate from the body based on the unreliability of the senses as
compared with pure reason. His own doubts lead him to believe that he is imperfect, yet his
ability to conceive of perfection indicates that something perfect must exist outside of him—
namely, God. He reasons that all good things in the world must stem from God, as must all clear
and distinct thoughts.

Part 5 moves from discussion of a theory of light to theories about human anatomy. Descartes
considers the fact that animals have many of the same organs as humans yet lack powers of
speech or reason. He takes this difference to be evidence of humankind’s “rational soul.” He
considers the mysterious connection of the soul to the body and concludes that the soul must
have a life outside the body. Therefore it must not die when the body dies. Because he cannot
conceive of a way that the soul could perish or be killed, he is forced to conclude that the soul is
immortal.

In part 6, Descartes cautiously touches on possible conflicts with the church over his ideas about
physical science. Finally, he implores his readers to read carefully, apologizes for writing in
French rather than Latin, and vows to shun fame and fortune in the name of pursuing truth and
knowledge.

3
Analysis

Discourse on the Method (1637) was Descartes’ first published work. He wrote the book in
French rather than Latin, the accepted language of scholarship at the time, because he intended to
explain complex scientific matters to people who had never studied them before.

Descartes’ education was based on the Aristotelian model of reasoning, which held that scientific
knowledge is deduced from fixed premises. This model is based on the syllogism, in which one
starts with a major premise (“Virtues are good”) and a minor premise (“kindness is a virtue”),
then draws a conclusion from the two (“therefore, kindness must be good”). Descartes wondered
whether he could be certain of the premises he had been taught. He was reasonably convinced of
the certainty of mathematics (at which he excelled), but the other sciences seemed shaky to him
because they were based on philosophical models rather than rational tests, which seemed to
Descartes the only sound method of discovery. His revolutionary step was to attempt to solve
problems in the sciences and philosophy by applying the rules of mathematics. His work,
however, is remembered for his development of a method rather than his work in the physical
sciences, which is now considered flawed and obsolete.

Descartes initiated a major shift away from Aristotle with the notion that individuals should
examine problems for themselves rather than relying on tradition. The four rules for individual
inquiry he outlines in Part Two are a summary of the thirty-six rules he intended to publish as
Rules for the Direction of the Mind (published posthumously). In essence, the first rule is about
avoiding the prejudices that come with age and education. The second rule is a call for breaking
every problem into its most basic parts, a practice that signals the shift from the traditional
approach to science into an approach more in line with mathematics. The third rule is about
working from simple elements to the more complicated elements—what math teachers call
“order of operations.” The fourth rule prescribes attention to detail.
Descartes’ imposition of this method on scientific inquiry signals the break between Aristotelian
thought and continental rationalism, a philosophical movement that spread across parts of
Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, of which Descartes is the first exemplar.
Aristotelian science, like rationalism, proceeds from first principles that are assumed to be
absolutely true. Aristotelians, like Descartes, proceed from those first principles to deduce other
truths. However, the principle truths accepted by Aristotelians are less certain than the ones
Descartes hopes to establish. By undertaking to doubt everything that cannot be deduced with
pure reason, Descartes undermines the Aristotelian method. For centuries, scholars had based
their philosophy on sense perception in combination with reason. Descartes’ new philosophy
instead proceeds from doubt and the denial of sensory experience.

Continental rationalism held that human reason was the basis of all knowledge. Rationalists
claimed that if one began with intuitively understood basic principles, like Descartes’ axioms of
geometry, one could deduce the truth about anything. Descartes’ method is now used most often
in algebraic proofs, geometry, and physics. The gist of the method is that, when attempting to
solve a problem, we have to formulate some sort of equation.

4
Descartes’ moral rules demonstrate both his distrust of the material world and his confidence in
his mind’s ability to overcome it. He has near-absolute faith in his ability to control his own
mind and believes that he only needs to change it to change reality. If he wants something he
can’t have, he won’t struggle to get it or be miserable about not having it. Instead, he’ll just
decide not to want it. Descartes’ resolution to become a spectator rather than an actor in the
events of the world around him amounts almost to a renunciation of his physical existence. Long
after Descartes, scientific study was governed by the ideal of detached observation advanced by
Descartes.

Part Four of Discourse is a precursor to his later work, Meditations on First Philosophy, and the
major ideas he provides here—that the self exists because it thinks and that God exists because
the self is imperfect and there must be a source for the idea of perfection outside the self—are
mere sketches of the detailed explanation he provides in Meditations.