René Descartes' Discourse on the Method

René Descartes (1596-1650) was a prominent French philosopher, scientist and mathematician, regarded as a seminal thinker in the emergence of modern philosophy and science.

Actually, he was a pioneer in emphasizing the use of Mathematics to his method of inquiry, through which he connected the previously separated fields of geometry and algebra into analytic geometry.

Furthermore, Descartes used fundamental concepts of Mathematics to present a rational approach in the search for knowledge and, ultimately, the truth, based on logical reasoning, that is, rational philosophical arguments.

For these reasons, sometimes he’s called "the founder of modern philosophy" and the "father of modern mathematics", regarded as one of the most important and influential thinkers in the history of Western thought, having therefore inspired contemporaries and several generations of later philosophers.

One of his main and best known books it constitutes the Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences (French: Discours de la Méthode pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences), published in 1637.

The work consists of a philosophical and autobiographical treatise, being best known as the source of the famous quotation "Je pense, donc je suis" ("I think, therefore I am", or "I am thinking, therefore I exist"), found in Part IV, also in his work Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) and Principles of Philosophy (1644) with similar argument through the Latin version “Ego cogito, ergo sum”.

Thus, like an introduction to three works -Dioptrique, Météores, and Géométrie-, the book is regarded as one of the most influential works in the history of modern philosophy as well as a seminal and important thinker concerning the development of natural sciences.

As the first modern philosopher, his contribution to epistemology reveals itself fundamental, as well as to the natural sciences, for having established a method that helped in their development. So, in his works Discourse on Method and Meditations Descartes created the foundations of contemporary science.

The Cartesian method consists of methodological skepticism - which has nothing to do with the skeptical attitude: one doubts every idea that is not clear and distinct.

Unlike the ancient Greeks and the Scholastics, who believed that things exist simply because they "need" to exist, or because that is how it should be, etc., he instituted doubt: one can only say that something exists that can be proven, and the act of doubting is indubitable.

Then, he sought to prove the existence of the self itself (which doubts: therefore, it is the subject of something. Ego cogito ergo sum, "I think, therefore I am") and of God.

The method also consists of four basic rules: 1. Check whether there is real and indubitable evidence about the phenomenon or thing studied; 2. Analyze, that is, divide things as much as possible into their simplest units and study these simplest things; 3. Synthesize, that is, group together the units studied into a true whole; and 4. List all the conclusions and principles used, in order to maintain the order of thought.

So, in short, in this work he addressed the problem of skepticism, previously tackled by other philosophers, having modified their approach to account for a truth he found to be incontrovertible.

Then, he began his line of reasoning by doubting everything, so as to assess the world from a fresh perspective, clear of any preconceived notions.

Indeed, below are some core ideas drawn from the book, initially beginning by some wit:

Part I: Various scientific considerations

“Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed; for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually Ddesire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess.”

Afterwards, he goes on with a warning:

“To be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it. The greatest minds, as they are capable of the highest excellences, are open likewise to the greatest aberrations; and those who travel very slowly may yet make far greater progress, provided they keep always to the straight road, than those who, while they run, forsake it.” [Descartes, René (1960). Discourse on Method and Meditations. Laurene J. Lafleur (trans). New York: The Liberal Arts Press].

Furthermore:

Part II: Principal rules of the Method:

“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.

“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.

“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.

“And the last, in every case to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so general, that I might be assured that nothing was omitted.” [Descartes, René. A Discourse on Method: Meditations and Principles. 1637. Translated by Veitch, John. London: OrionPublishing Group. 2004, p. 15].

Part III: Morals and Maxims of conducting the Method:

The first was to obey the laws and customs of my country, adhering firmly to the faith in which, by the grace of God, I had been educated from my childhood; and regulating my conduct in every other matter according to the most moderate opinions, and the farthest removed from extremes, which should happen to be adopted in practice with general consent of the most judicious of those among whom I might be living. 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, there is nothing absolutely in our power; so that when we have done our best in things external to us, our ill-success cannot possibly be failure on our part.”

Part IV: Proof of God and the Soul:

Descartes challenges his own reasoning and reason itself, despite believing three things are not susceptible to doubt and the three support each other to form a stable foundation for the method. So, he can’t doubt something has to be there to do the doubting: I think, therefore I am. The method of doubt therefore can’t doubt reason as it’s based on reason itself. By reason there exists a God, and God is the guarantor that reason isn’t misguided. In effect, he supplies three different proofs for the existence of God, including what is now referred to as the ontological proof of the existence of God.

In addition, he describes his work on light, stating:

Part V: Physics, the heart, and the soul of man and animals.

“[I] expounded at considerable length what the nature of that light must be which is found in the sun and the stars, and how thence in an instant of time it traverses the immense spaces of the heavens”

Finally, his work in relation to physico-mechanical laws, nevertheless, seems to concern not to our world but to a theoretical "new world" created by God:

“somewhere in the imaginary spaces [with] matter sufficient to compose ... [a "new world" in which He] ... agitate[d] variously and confusedly the different parts of this matter, so that there resulted a chaos as disordered as the poets ever feigned, and after that did nothing more than lend his ordinary concurrence to nature, and allow her to act in accordance with the laws which he had established.”