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Descartes and Method in 1637

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Daniel Garber
Daniel Garber*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Extract

The Discours de la Méthode and the three essays that were published with it, the Dioptrique, the Météores, and the Géometrie make up a very curious book. The very title page emphasizes the preliminary discourse, and that discourse, the Discours de la Méthode, emphasizes method, the importance that method had for Descartes in making the discoveries he made, the importance that the method Descartes claims to have found will have for the progress of the sciences and for the benefit of humankind as whole. Descartes is not, of course, telling us that we are obligated to follow his method; the Discours is, after all, proposed “as a story, or, if you prefer, as a fable.” (AT VI 4). But Descartes expects that we will all see the light, the light of reason, of course, and follow his example.

Type
Part VIII. Descartes
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1988 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1988 , 1988 , pp. 225 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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