Five-minute digest

Discourse on Method

Rene Descartes

Summary

The Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences was published anonymously in Leiden in 1637 as a preface to three scientific essays, the Dioptrics, the Meteors and the Geometry. Descartes wrote it in French rather than Latin so that readers using their natural reason, including women, could judge it without scholastic training, and he presented it not as a treatise but as a history or fable of his own mind. Part I opens with the ironic claim that good sense is the most equally distributed thing in the world, and argues that differences in opinion come from how people conduct their reason, not how much they have. Descartes reviews his education at one of the most celebrated schools in Europe and finds that only mathematics gave certainty, while philosophy offered nothing undisputed. He resolved to study the great book of the world, travelled, served in armies and learned how customs differ, then decided to make himself his own object of study. Part II recalls a winter day in Germany in 1619, spent alone in seclusion, when he reflected that works made by a single architect are better ordered than those patched by many hands, and resolved to rebuild his own beliefs from the foundations. He sets out four rules: accept nothing as true that is not clearly and distinctly known, divide each difficulty into parts, proceed in order from simplest to most complex, and make complete enumerations. Part III supplies a provisional morality to live by while doubting: obey the laws and customs of his country and moderate opinions; act resolutely on doubtful opinions once chosen, like travellers lost in a forest who should walk straight in one direction; master himself rather than fortune; and devote his life to cultivating reason. Part IV condenses the metaphysics later developed in the Meditations. Rejecting everything open to the slightest doubt, including the senses, demonstrations and waking experience that might be dreamed, he finds that while he doubts he must exist: I think, therefore I am. He concludes that he is a thinking substance distinct from the body, proves God's existence from his idea of a perfect being, and uses God's perfection to guarantee clear and distinct ideas. Part V summarizes his suppressed physics, The World, and gives a detailed mechanical account of the heart and the circulation of the blood, crediting William Harvey with circulation while disputing his explanation of the heartbeat. Descartes argues that animal bodies are machines and offers two tests, flexible use of language and general-purpose reason, that would distinguish any human from an automaton and humans from animals, concluding that the human soul is independent of the body. Part VI explains why he withheld The World after Galileo's condemnation in 1633, sets out his hope that science will make us masters and possessors of nature, and names medicine, the preservation of health, as its chief aim.

Top Lessons

Rebuild beliefs from foundations you can trust
Descartes's method is to clear away whatever admits doubt and proceed in careful order from what is evident. It teaches a habit of checking premises before building on them, even if his own foundations proved contestable.
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  Doubt used as a method, not a mood. Descartes doubts systematically and temporarily, in order to find what cannot be doubted. The Meditations distinguish a disciplined procedure of suspending belief from the sceptic's lasting uncertainty.
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Act decisively even when certainty is unavailable
The provisional morality separates the search for truth from the need to act. Like the traveller lost in the forest, one should choose the most probable path and keep to it rather than being paralyzed by doubt.
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Medicine as the purpose of the new science
Part VI hopes that knowing nature will cure diseases of body and mind and perhaps slow ageing, because the mind depends closely on the body's organs. Descartes makes medicine the main reason for doing science.
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Verified Quotes

“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 desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess”

"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 desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess" — Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, Part I, trans. John Veitch (19th century).

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“The greatest minds, as they are capable of the highest excellences, are open likewise to the greatest aberrations”

"The greatest minds, as they are capable of the highest excellences, are open likewise to the greatest aberrations" — Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, Part I, trans. John Veitch (19th century).

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“resolved no longer to seek any other science than the knowledge of myself, or of the great book of the world”

"resolved no longer to seek any other science than the knowledge of myself, or of the great book of the world" — Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, Part I, trans. John Veitch (19th century).

Related across the library

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Frequently cited

“The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such”

"The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such" — Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, Part II, trans. John Veitch (19th century).

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12 Years a Slave, Tibeats episode
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“imitating in this the example of travelers who, when they have lost their way in a forest, ought not to wander from side to side, far less remain in one place, but proceed constantly towards the same side in as straight a line as possible”

"imitating in this the example of travelers who, when they have lost their way in a forest, ought not to wander from side to side, far less remain in one place, but proceed constantly towards the same side in as straight a line as possible" — Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, Part III, trans. John Veitch (19th century).

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“My _third_ maxim was to endeavor always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and change my desires rather than the order of the world”

"My _third_ maxim was to endeavor always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and change my desires rather than the order of the world" — Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, Part III, trans. John Veitch (19th century).

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Frequently cited

“I think, therefore I am (COGITO ERGO SUM”

"I think, therefore I am (COGITO ERGO SUM" — Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, Part IV, trans. John Veitch (19th century).

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Doubt used as a method, not a mood. Descartes doubts systematically and temporarily, in order to find what cannot be doubted. The Meditations distinguish a disciplined procedure of suspending belief from the sceptic's lasting uncertainty.
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“the mind by which I am what I am, is wholly distinct from the body, and is even more easily known than the latter”

"the mind by which I am what I am, is wholly distinct from the body, and is even more easily known than the latter" — Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, Part IV, trans. John Veitch (19th century).

Related across the library

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Ethics, Part II, Prop. XIII
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“I need only mention in reply what has been written by a physician of England, who has the honor of having broken the ice on this subject”

"I need only mention in reply what has been written by a physician of England, who has the honor of having broken the ice on this subject" — Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, Part V, trans. John Veitch (19th century).

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Mental Pathology and Therapeutics, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
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although I take upon me to teach it to others It is probable many will think this and it is very possible that I have But I trust whereinsoever I have mistaken my mind is open to conviction I sincerely desire to be better informed I say to God and man What I know not teach thou me Are you persuaded you see more clearly than me It is not unlikely that you may Then treat me as you would desire to be treated yourself upon a change of circumstances Point me out a better way than I have yet known Show me it is so by...

“Such persons will look upon this body as a machine made by the hands of God, which is incomparably better arranged, and adequate to movements more admirable than is any machine of human invention”

"Such persons will look upon this body as a machine made by the hands of God, which is incomparably better arranged, and adequate to movements more admirable than is any machine of human invention" — Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, Part V, trans. John Veitch (19th century).

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Medical Lens

The Discourse is a key text in the history of physiology and of psychiatry's mind-body problem. Part V is an early printed endorsement of Harvey's circulation of the blood by a major philosopher, supported with evidence from surgeons' practice of tying the arm before bloodletting, combined with Descartes's own mistaken theory that the heart beats because blood is rarefied by heat. Its account of the body as a machine and of animals as automata shaped mechanistic medicine and later debates over animal experimentation. Part IV's dualism is often blamed for a split between 'mental' and 'physical' illness, though Part VI insists that the mind depends intimately on the body and looks to medicine to improve wisdom, cure maladies of mind and body, and slow ageing. That double message makes the book useful for teaching the history of biological psychiatry.

Mind Body Anatomy Dissection Physicians Doctors Bloodletting Aging Senescence Dreams Nightmares Philosophy AS Therapy Medical Ethics Ancient Medicine

Part IV
Methodical doubt including the possibility that waking experience is a dream; the conclusion that the thinking self is distinct from the body.
Part V
Detailed mechanical account of cardiac motion, valves and auricles, explained by heat rarefying the blood, with an invitation to dissect the heart of a large animal.
Part V
Harvey credited with circulation; evidence from surgeons who tie the arm above the vein they open in bloodletting.
Part V
Animal spirits, nerves, muscles and the brain explained mechanically; animals as automata; speech and reason as signs of a rational soul, with remarks on deaf people's sign language.
Part VI
Health as the first good; the mind's dependence on bodily organs; hope that medicine could cure diseases of body and mind and the debility of age.

Discourse on Method

Summary

Top Lessons

Rebuild beliefs from foundations you can trust

Act decisively even when certainty is unavailable

Medicine as the purpose of the new science

Language marks the difference between mind and mechanism

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens