Discourse on Method

Discourse on Method
The Scientific Method
How to think correctly	All have common sense
Method:How to think
Moral Maxims	Obey local customs
Proof of God & Soul	What is perfect?
Physics, heart & soul	Mind-Body Dualism
Experiments	Experiment if complex

The Discourse on Method is a philosophical and mathematical treatise published by René Descartes in 1637. Its full name is Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason in the Search for Truth in the Sciences (French title: Discours de la méthode pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la verité dans les sciences). The Discourse on Method is best known as the source of the famous quotation "cogito ergo sum", "I think, therefore I am." In addition, it contains Descartes' first introduction of the Cartesian coordinate system.

This is one of the most influential works in history. It is a method which gives a solid platform from which all modern natural sciences could evolve. With this work, the idea of skepticism was revived from the ancients such as Sextus Empiricus and modified to account for a truth that Descartes found to be incontrovertible. Descartes started his line of reasoning by doubting everything, so as to assess the world from a fresh perspective, clear of any preconceived notions.

The book was originally published in Leiden in French, together with his works "Dioptrique, Météores e Géométrie". Later, it was translated into Latin and published in 1656 in Amsterdam.

Together with Meditations on First Philosophy (Meditationes of philosophia cousin), Principles of Philosophy and Rules for the Direction of the Mind (ad Regulae directionem ingenii), it forms the base of the Epistemology known as Cartesianism.

The book is divided into six parts

How to think correctly
The Method of Science
Morals Maxims deduced from this Method
Proof of God and the Soul
Physics, the heart, the soul of man and animals
Experiments

How to think correctly

"Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed ... the diversity of our opinions, consequently, does not arise from some being endowed with a larger share of reason than others, but solely from this, that we conduct our thoughts along different ways, and do not fix our attention on the same objects. For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it."

The Method of Science

The four precepts

The following quote from Discourse on Method presents the four precepts that characterise the Method itself:

1. "The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgment than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt.

2. The second, to divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible, and as might be necessary for its adequate solution.

3. The third, to conduct my thoughts in such order that, by commencing with objects the simplest and easiest to know, I might ascend by little and little, and, as it were, step by step, to the knowledge of the more complex; assigning in thought a certain order even to those objects which in their own nature do not stand in a relation of antecedence and sequence.

4. And the last, in every case to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so general, that I might be assured that nothing was omitted."

By clear and distinct he suggests the evidence of the senses.

The enumerations have in time developed into many forms. He suggested drawing boxes on a paper, and connecting them. This idea has led to a multitude of graphic thinking aids that we use today.

Morals, and Maxims deduced from this Method

Obey the laws and customs of my country and religion
Be as firm and resolute in my actions as I was able
Endeavor always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and change my desires rather than the order of the world, and in general, accustom myself to the persuasion that, except our own thoughts, here is nothing absolutely in our power; so that when we have done our best in things external to us, all wherein we fail of success is to be held, as regards us, absolutely impossible.

Descartes uses the analogy of tearing down the house to its foundation in order to build a secure edifice (He even extends the analogy to move next door into a house of morality, while his own house is being rebuilt). The foundation he reveals appears to have three parts.

Proof of God and the Soul

Applying the method to itself, Descartes challenges his own reasoning and reason itself. But Descartes believes three things are not susceptible to doubt and the three support each other to form a stable foundation for the method. He cannot doubt that something has to be there to do the doubting (I think, therefore I am). The method of doubt cannot doubt reason as it is based on reason itself. By reason there exists a God and God is the guarantor that reason is not misguided.

Perhaps the most strained part of the argument is the reasoned proof of the existence of God and indeed Descartes seems to realise this as he supplies three different 'proofs' including what is now referred to as the ontological proof of the existence of God (some argue that Descartes inserted his statement on the existence of God in the Discourse on Method to appease censors of the time; a very serious concern, as within Discourse Descartes points out that he was at first reluctant to publish the work because of the recent show trial of Galileo by the Catholic Church in 1633, only four years earlier).

His idea of God in Meditations amounts to identifying God with the Universe.

Physics, the heart, the soul of man and animals

Here he describes how he in other writings discusses the idea of laws of nature, of the sun and stars, the idea of the moon being the cause of ebb and flood, on gravitation, going to examine light and fire, and goes on to medicine, the motion of the blood in the heart and arteries. He describes that these motions seem to be totally independent of what we think, and concludes that our bodies are separate from our soul.

He does not seem to distinguish between mind minds, spirit and soul, which are identified as our faculty for rational thinking.

Experiments

"Experiments, that they become always more necessary the more one is advanced in knowledge; for, at the commencement, it is better to make use only of what is spontaneously presented to our senses"

"First, I have essayed to find in general the principles, or first causes of all that is or can be in the world"

Secure on these foundation stones, Descartes shows the practical application of 'The Method' in Mathematics and the Sciences.

Influencing future Science

One of the practical methods was to order the objects in different ways on paper to make them easy to see clearly. This became the basis of the Cartesian coordinate system, the Histogram and Analytic geometry. These ideas, among other methods of science, influenced Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz in their development of calculus. .

The most important influence, however, was the first precept, which states, in Descartes words, to "never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such". This new idea of skepticism influenced many to start finding out things for themselves rather than relying solely on authority. The idea as such may have been the starting point for the development of modern science.

This skepticism not only influenced the "hard" sciences, but is considered the start of modern philosophy. Later philosophers adopted Descartes doubt with a vengeance. Most prominently, David Hume doubted the concept of causality and was unable to "clearly know" it to be true.

External links

Summary of "Discourse on method"
free audiobook at librivox.org

1637 books | Epistemology | Philosophy books | Mathematics books

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