René Descartes: Discourse on the Method
The following quotes all are from the Biographical note, pg. ix
“I found myself embarrassed with so many doubts and errors, that it seemed to me that the effort to instruct myself had not effect other than the increasing discovery of my own ignorance.”
Descartes spent the remainder of his youth in traveling, “resolved no longer to seek any other science than the knowledge of myself or of the great book of the world.”
“…when I was filled with enthusiasm I discovered the foundations of the wonderful science.” The discovery was followed by a series of three dreams which left Descartes the impression that “the Spirit of Truth had opened to him the treasures of all the sciences.”
1629-1649
He disliked dwelling for long in the same place and during that time changed his residence 24 times, concerned only it would appear, to be in the neighborhood of a university and a Catholic Church. From the Biographical note, pg. x
Descartes wrote:
But I shall not hesitate to say that I have had great good fortune from my youth up in lighting upon and pursuing certain paths which have conducted me to considerations and maxims from which I have formed a method, by whose assistance it appears to me I have had the means of gradually increasing my knowledge and of little by little raising it up to the highest possible point which the mediocrity of my talents and the brief duration of my life can permit me to reach.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 41
Descartes wrote:
I do not cease to receive extreme satisfaction in the progress which I seem to have already made in the search after truth, and to form such hopes for the future as to venture to believe that , if amongst the occupations of men, simply as men, there is some one in particular that is excellent and important, that is the one which I have selected.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42
Descartes wrote:
It must always be recollected, however that possibly I deceive myself, and that what I take to be gold and diamonds is perhaps no more than copper and glass. I know how subject we are to delusion in whatever touches ourselves, and also how much the judgments of our friends out to be suspected when they are in our favour.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42
Descartes wrote:
I was given to believe that by their means a clear and certain knowledge could be obtained of all that is useful in life, I had an extreme desire to acquire instruction. Bout so soon as I had achieved the entire course of study at the close of which one is usually receive into the ranks of the learned, I entirely changed my opinion. For I found myself embarrassed with so many doubts and errors, that it seemed to me that the effort to instruct myself had not effect other than the increasing discovery of my own ignorance.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42
Descartes wrote:
I even read through all the books which fell into my hands, treating of what is considered most curious and rare. Along with this I knew the judgments that other had formed of me and I did not feel that I was esteemed inferior to my fellow-students, although there were amongst them some destined to fill the places of our masters. And finally our century seemed to me as flourishing, and as fertile in great minds, as any which had preceded. And this made me take the liberty of judging all others by myself and of coming to the conclusion that there was no learning in the world such as I was formerly led to believe it to be.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42
Descartes wrote:
I knew that the Languages which one learns there are essential for the understanding of all ancient literature; that fables with their charm stimulate the mind and histories of memorable deeds exalt it; and that, when read with discretion, these books assist in forming a sound judgment. I was aware that the reading of all good books is in deed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, a nay a carefully studied conversation, win which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42
Descartes wrote:
I deemed Eloquence to have a power and beauty beyond compare; that Poesy has most ravishing delicacy and sweetness; that in Mathematics there are the subtlest discoveries and inventions which may accomplish much both satisfying the curious, and in furthering all the arts, and in diminishing man’s labour, that those writing that deal with Morals contain much that is instructive, and many exhortation to virtue which are most useful that Theology point out the way to Heaven, that Philosophy teaches us to speak with an appearance of truth on all things, and causes us to be admires by the less learned; that Jurisprudence, Medicine and all other sciences bring honour and riches to those who cultivate them; and finally that it is good to have examined all things, even those most full of superstition and falsehood, in order that we may know their just value, and avoid being deceived by them.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42
Descartes wrote:
But I considered that I had already given sufficient time to languages and likewise even to the reading of the literature of the ancients, both their histories and their fables. For to converse with those of other centuries is almost the same thing as to travel. It is good to know something of the customs of different peoples in order to judge more sanely of our own, and not to think that everything of a fashion not ours is absurd and contrary to reason, as do those who have seen nothing. But when one employs too much time in traveling, one become a stranger in one’s own country, and when one is too curious about things which were practiced in past centuries, one is usually very ignorant about those which are practiced in our own time.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 43
Descartes wrote:
Besides, fables make one imagine many events possible which in reality are not so…
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 43
Descartes wrote:
I esteemed Eloquence most highly and I was enamoured of Poesy, but I thought that both were gifts of the mind rather than fruits of study.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 43
Descartes wrote:
…considering how many conflicting opinions there may be regarding the self-same matter, all supported by learned people, while there can never be more than one which is true, I esteemed as well-night false all that only went as far as being probably.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 43
Descartes wrote:
Again I thought that since we have all been children before being men, and since it has for long fallen to us to be governed by our appetites and by our teachers who often enough contradicted one another, and none of whom perhaps counseled us always for the best, it is almost impossible that our judgments would be so excellent or solid as they should have been had we had complete use of our reason since our birth, and had we been guided by its means alone.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 45
Descartes wrote:
The simple resolve to strip oneself of all opinions and beliefs formerly received is not to be regarded as an examples that each man should follow, and the world may be said to be mainly composed of two classes of minds neither of which could prudently adopt it.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46
Descartes wrote:
There are those who, believing themselves to be cleverer than they are, cannot restrain themselves from being precipitate in judgment and have not sufficient patience to arrange their thoughts in proper order; hence, once a man of this description had taken the liberty of doubting the principles he formerly accepted, and had deviated from the beaten tack, he would never be able to maintain the path which must be followed to read the appointed end more quickly, and he would hence remain wandering astray all through his life.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46
Descartes wrote:
I had been taught…that there is nothing imaginable so strange or so little credible that it has not be maintained by one philosopher or another…
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46
Descartes wrote:
…I further recognized in the course of my travels that all those whose sentiments are very contrary to ours are yet not necessarily barbarians or savages, but may be possessed of reason in as great or even a greater degree than ourselves.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46
Descartes wrote:
I likewise noticed how even in the fashions of one’s clothing the same thing that please us ten years ago, and which will perhaps please us once again before ten years are passed, seem at the present time extravagant and ridiculous.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46
Descartes wrote:
I did not at the same time hope for any practical result in so doing, except that my mind would become accustomed to the nourishment of truth and would not consent itself to false reasoning.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 47
Descartes wrote about the maxims he decided upon:
1 - Obey the laws and customs of my country…adhering constantly …to religion…
2 – firm and resolute in my actions
3 – conquer self rather than fortune
4 – review various occupations…to choose the best for self
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 3, pg. 48 - 49
Descartes wrote:
…lost in a forest, now that they out not to wander first to one side and then to the other, nor still less, to stop in one place, but understand that they should continue to walk as straight as they can in one direction, not diverging for any slight reason… By this means if they do not go exactly where they wish, they will at least arrive somewhere… Where they will be better off than in the middle of a forest.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 3, pg. 49
Descartes wrote:
… because our senses sometimes deceive us, I wished to suppose that nothing is just as they cause us to imagine it to be; and because there are men who deceive themselves in their reasoning and fall into paralogisms, even considering the simplest matters of geometry, and judging that I was as subject to error as any other, I rejected as false all the reasons formerly accepted by me as demonstrations.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 4, pg. 51
Descartes wrote:
What causes many, however to persuade themselves that there is difficulty in knowing this truth, and even in knowing that nature of their soul, is the fact that they never raise their minds avobe the things of sense… … to hear sounds or smell odours, they should wish to make use of their eyes; excepting that there is indeed this difference, that the sense of sight does not give us less assurance of the truth of it’s object, than do those of scent or of hearing, while neither our imagination nor our senses can ever assure us of anything, if our understanding does not intervene.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 4, pg. 53
Descartes wrote:
When a metaphysical certainty is in question, that there is sufficient cause for our not having complete assurance, by observing the fact that when asleep we may similarly imagine that we have another body, and that we see other stars and another earth, without there being anything of the kind. For how do we know that the thoughts that come in dreams are more false than those that we have when we are awake…
For even if in sleep we had some very distinct idea such as a geometrician might have who discovered some new demonstration, the fact of being asleep would not militate against the truth.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 4, pg. 53- 54
Descartes wrote:
…to speak of many matters of dispute among the learned, which whom I have no desire to embroil myself, I think that I will be better to abstain.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 54
Descartes wrote:
… I tried to demonstrate all those of which one could have any doubt, and to show that they are of such a nature that even if God had created other worlds, He could not have created any in which these law would fail to be observed. After that I showed h how the greatest part of the matter of which this chaos is constituted, must in accordance with these laws dispose and arrange itself in such a fashion as to render it similar to our heaven; and how meantime some of its parts must form an earth, some planets, and comets, and some others a sun and fixed stars. And enlarging on the subject of light, I here explained at length the nature of the light which would be found in the sun and stars, and how from these it crossed in an instant the immense space of the heavens and how it was reflected form the planets and comets to the earth….I had expressly presupposed that God had not placed any weight in the matter of which it is composed, its parts did not fail all to gravitate exactly to its centre; and how having water and air on its surface, the disposition of the heavens and of the stars more particularly of the moon, must cause a flux or reflux, which in all it’s circumstances is similar to that which is observed in our seas, and besides that, a certain current both of water and air from east to west, such as may also be observed in the tropics.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 55
Descartes wrote:
…And because I knew nothing but fire which could produce light, excepting the stars, I studied amongst other things to make very clear tall that pertains to it’s nature, how it is formed, how nourished, how there is sometimes only heat without light, and sometimes light without heat; I showed too, how different colours might by it be induced upon different bodies and qualities of diverse kinds, how some of these were liquefied and others solidified, how nearly all can be consumed or converted into ashes and smoke by its means, and finally how of these ashes, but the intensity of its action alone, it forms glass. Since this transformation of ashes into glass seemed to me as wonderful as any other process in nature, I took particular pleasure in describing it.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 55
Descartes wrote:
I did not at the same time which to infer from all these fact that this world has been created in the manner which I described; for it is much more probably that tat the beginning God mad it such as it was to be. But it is certain, and it is an opinion commonly received by the theologians that the action by which He now preserves it is just the same as that by which He at first created it. In this way, although He had not, to being with, given this world any other form than that of chaos, provided that the laws of nature had once been established and that He had lent His aid in order that is action should be according to its wont, we may well believe without doing outrage to the miracle of creation, that by this means alone all things which are purely material might in course of time have become as such as we observe them to be at present; and their nature is much easier to understand when we see them coming to pass little by little in this manner, than were we to consider them as all complete to begin with.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 55
Descartes wrote:
And we ought not to confound speech with natural movements which betray passion and my be imitated by machines as well as be manifested by animals; nor must we think as did some of the ancients, that brutes talk, although we do not understand their language. For it this were true, since they have many organs which are allied to our own, they could communicate their thoughts to us just as easily as to those of their own race.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 60
Descartes wrote:
For next to the error of those who deny God, which I think I have already sufficiently refuted, there is none which is more effectual in leading feeble spirits from the straight path of virtue, than to imagine that the soul of the brute is of the same nature as our own, and that in consequence, after this life we have nothing to fear or to hope for, any more than the flies and ants.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 60
Descartes wrote:
.. I was commencing to revise it in order to place it in the hands of a printer, when I learned that certain persons, to whose opinion I defer, and whose authority cannot have less weight with my actions than my own reason has over has over my thoughts, had disapproved of a physical theory published a little while before by another person [Galileo]. I will not say that I agreed with this opinion, but only that before their censure I observed in it nothing which I could possibly imagine to be prejudicial either to Religion or the State.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 6, pg. 60
Descartes wrote:
…this made me fear that among my own opinions one might be found which should be misunderstood, notwithstanding the great care which I have always taken not to accept any new beliefs unless I had very certain proof of their truth, and not to give expression that what could tend to the disadvantage of any person.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 6, pg. 60
Descartes wrote:
…to examine them carefully, (for these Is no doubt that we always scrutinize more closely what we think will be seen by many, than what is done simply for ourselves, and often the things which have seemed true to me when I began to think about them, seemed false when I ttried to place them on paper);
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 6, pg. 62
Descartes wrote:
… it hardly ever happens that any of their disciples surpass them [the ancient philosophers] … those who must passionately follow Aristotle, now-a-days would think themselves happy if they had as much knowledge of nature as he had. … like the Ivy that never tried to mount above the trees which give it support.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 6, pg. 64
VOCABULARY - René Descartes: Discourse on the Method
Pg. 46, syllogismsdeductive reasoning in which a conclusion is derived from two premises
Pg. 46, superfluousexcess, extra, redundant, spare, supererogatory, superfluous,supernumerary, surplusmore than is needed, desired, or required; "trying to lose excessweight"; "found some extra change lying on the dresser"; "yet anotherbook on heraldry might be thought redundant"; "skills made redundantby technological advance"; "sleeping in the spare2 otiose, pointless, superfluous, wastedserving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being; "otiose linesin a play"; "advice is wasted words
Pg. 47, multiplicitythe property of being multiple
Pg. 47 precipitationhaste, hastiness, hurry, hurriedness, precipitation overly eager speed (and possible carelessness); "he soon regrettedhis haste"
Pg. 47, reconditedifficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinaryunderstanding or knowledge; "the professor's lectures were so abstrusethat students tended to avoid them"; "a deep metaphysical theory";"some recondite problem in historiography"
Pg. 51, paralogismsan unintentionally invalid argument
Pg. 54, chimeraa grotesque product of the imagination
The following quotes all are from the Biographical note, pg. ix
“I found myself embarrassed with so many doubts and errors, that it seemed to me that the effort to instruct myself had not effect other than the increasing discovery of my own ignorance.”
Descartes spent the remainder of his youth in traveling, “resolved no longer to seek any other science than the knowledge of myself or of the great book of the world.”
“…when I was filled with enthusiasm I discovered the foundations of the wonderful science.” The discovery was followed by a series of three dreams which left Descartes the impression that “the Spirit of Truth had opened to him the treasures of all the sciences.”
1629-1649
He disliked dwelling for long in the same place and during that time changed his residence 24 times, concerned only it would appear, to be in the neighborhood of a university and a Catholic Church. From the Biographical note, pg. x
Descartes wrote:
But I shall not hesitate to say that I have had great good fortune from my youth up in lighting upon and pursuing certain paths which have conducted me to considerations and maxims from which I have formed a method, by whose assistance it appears to me I have had the means of gradually increasing my knowledge and of little by little raising it up to the highest possible point which the mediocrity of my talents and the brief duration of my life can permit me to reach.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 41
Descartes wrote:
I do not cease to receive extreme satisfaction in the progress which I seem to have already made in the search after truth, and to form such hopes for the future as to venture to believe that , if amongst the occupations of men, simply as men, there is some one in particular that is excellent and important, that is the one which I have selected.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42
Descartes wrote:
It must always be recollected, however that possibly I deceive myself, and that what I take to be gold and diamonds is perhaps no more than copper and glass. I know how subject we are to delusion in whatever touches ourselves, and also how much the judgments of our friends out to be suspected when they are in our favour.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42
Descartes wrote:
I was given to believe that by their means a clear and certain knowledge could be obtained of all that is useful in life, I had an extreme desire to acquire instruction. Bout so soon as I had achieved the entire course of study at the close of which one is usually receive into the ranks of the learned, I entirely changed my opinion. For I found myself embarrassed with so many doubts and errors, that it seemed to me that the effort to instruct myself had not effect other than the increasing discovery of my own ignorance.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42
Descartes wrote:
I even read through all the books which fell into my hands, treating of what is considered most curious and rare. Along with this I knew the judgments that other had formed of me and I did not feel that I was esteemed inferior to my fellow-students, although there were amongst them some destined to fill the places of our masters. And finally our century seemed to me as flourishing, and as fertile in great minds, as any which had preceded. And this made me take the liberty of judging all others by myself and of coming to the conclusion that there was no learning in the world such as I was formerly led to believe it to be.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42
Descartes wrote:
I knew that the Languages which one learns there are essential for the understanding of all ancient literature; that fables with their charm stimulate the mind and histories of memorable deeds exalt it; and that, when read with discretion, these books assist in forming a sound judgment. I was aware that the reading of all good books is in deed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, a nay a carefully studied conversation, win which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42
Descartes wrote:
I deemed Eloquence to have a power and beauty beyond compare; that Poesy has most ravishing delicacy and sweetness; that in Mathematics there are the subtlest discoveries and inventions which may accomplish much both satisfying the curious, and in furthering all the arts, and in diminishing man’s labour, that those writing that deal with Morals contain much that is instructive, and many exhortation to virtue which are most useful that Theology point out the way to Heaven, that Philosophy teaches us to speak with an appearance of truth on all things, and causes us to be admires by the less learned; that Jurisprudence, Medicine and all other sciences bring honour and riches to those who cultivate them; and finally that it is good to have examined all things, even those most full of superstition and falsehood, in order that we may know their just value, and avoid being deceived by them.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 42
Descartes wrote:
But I considered that I had already given sufficient time to languages and likewise even to the reading of the literature of the ancients, both their histories and their fables. For to converse with those of other centuries is almost the same thing as to travel. It is good to know something of the customs of different peoples in order to judge more sanely of our own, and not to think that everything of a fashion not ours is absurd and contrary to reason, as do those who have seen nothing. But when one employs too much time in traveling, one become a stranger in one’s own country, and when one is too curious about things which were practiced in past centuries, one is usually very ignorant about those which are practiced in our own time.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 43
Descartes wrote:
Besides, fables make one imagine many events possible which in reality are not so…
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 43
Descartes wrote:
I esteemed Eloquence most highly and I was enamoured of Poesy, but I thought that both were gifts of the mind rather than fruits of study.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 43
Descartes wrote:
…considering how many conflicting opinions there may be regarding the self-same matter, all supported by learned people, while there can never be more than one which is true, I esteemed as well-night false all that only went as far as being probably.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 1, pg. 43
Descartes wrote:
Again I thought that since we have all been children before being men, and since it has for long fallen to us to be governed by our appetites and by our teachers who often enough contradicted one another, and none of whom perhaps counseled us always for the best, it is almost impossible that our judgments would be so excellent or solid as they should have been had we had complete use of our reason since our birth, and had we been guided by its means alone.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 45
Descartes wrote:
The simple resolve to strip oneself of all opinions and beliefs formerly received is not to be regarded as an examples that each man should follow, and the world may be said to be mainly composed of two classes of minds neither of which could prudently adopt it.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46
Descartes wrote:
There are those who, believing themselves to be cleverer than they are, cannot restrain themselves from being precipitate in judgment and have not sufficient patience to arrange their thoughts in proper order; hence, once a man of this description had taken the liberty of doubting the principles he formerly accepted, and had deviated from the beaten tack, he would never be able to maintain the path which must be followed to read the appointed end more quickly, and he would hence remain wandering astray all through his life.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46
Descartes wrote:
I had been taught…that there is nothing imaginable so strange or so little credible that it has not be maintained by one philosopher or another…
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46
Descartes wrote:
…I further recognized in the course of my travels that all those whose sentiments are very contrary to ours are yet not necessarily barbarians or savages, but may be possessed of reason in as great or even a greater degree than ourselves.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46
Descartes wrote:
I likewise noticed how even in the fashions of one’s clothing the same thing that please us ten years ago, and which will perhaps please us once again before ten years are passed, seem at the present time extravagant and ridiculous.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 46
Descartes wrote:
I did not at the same time hope for any practical result in so doing, except that my mind would become accustomed to the nourishment of truth and would not consent itself to false reasoning.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 2, pg. 47
Descartes wrote about the maxims he decided upon:
1 - Obey the laws and customs of my country…adhering constantly …to religion…
2 – firm and resolute in my actions
3 – conquer self rather than fortune
4 – review various occupations…to choose the best for self
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 3, pg. 48 - 49
Descartes wrote:
…lost in a forest, now that they out not to wander first to one side and then to the other, nor still less, to stop in one place, but understand that they should continue to walk as straight as they can in one direction, not diverging for any slight reason… By this means if they do not go exactly where they wish, they will at least arrive somewhere… Where they will be better off than in the middle of a forest.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 3, pg. 49
Descartes wrote:
… because our senses sometimes deceive us, I wished to suppose that nothing is just as they cause us to imagine it to be; and because there are men who deceive themselves in their reasoning and fall into paralogisms, even considering the simplest matters of geometry, and judging that I was as subject to error as any other, I rejected as false all the reasons formerly accepted by me as demonstrations.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 4, pg. 51
Descartes wrote:
What causes many, however to persuade themselves that there is difficulty in knowing this truth, and even in knowing that nature of their soul, is the fact that they never raise their minds avobe the things of sense… … to hear sounds or smell odours, they should wish to make use of their eyes; excepting that there is indeed this difference, that the sense of sight does not give us less assurance of the truth of it’s object, than do those of scent or of hearing, while neither our imagination nor our senses can ever assure us of anything, if our understanding does not intervene.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, part 4, pg. 53
Descartes wrote:
When a metaphysical certainty is in question, that there is sufficient cause for our not having complete assurance, by observing the fact that when asleep we may similarly imagine that we have another body, and that we see other stars and another earth, without there being anything of the kind. For how do we know that the thoughts that come in dreams are more false than those that we have when we are awake…
For even if in sleep we had some very distinct idea such as a geometrician might have who discovered some new demonstration, the fact of being asleep would not militate against the truth.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 4, pg. 53- 54
Descartes wrote:
…to speak of many matters of dispute among the learned, which whom I have no desire to embroil myself, I think that I will be better to abstain.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 54
Descartes wrote:
… I tried to demonstrate all those of which one could have any doubt, and to show that they are of such a nature that even if God had created other worlds, He could not have created any in which these law would fail to be observed. After that I showed h how the greatest part of the matter of which this chaos is constituted, must in accordance with these laws dispose and arrange itself in such a fashion as to render it similar to our heaven; and how meantime some of its parts must form an earth, some planets, and comets, and some others a sun and fixed stars. And enlarging on the subject of light, I here explained at length the nature of the light which would be found in the sun and stars, and how from these it crossed in an instant the immense space of the heavens and how it was reflected form the planets and comets to the earth….I had expressly presupposed that God had not placed any weight in the matter of which it is composed, its parts did not fail all to gravitate exactly to its centre; and how having water and air on its surface, the disposition of the heavens and of the stars more particularly of the moon, must cause a flux or reflux, which in all it’s circumstances is similar to that which is observed in our seas, and besides that, a certain current both of water and air from east to west, such as may also be observed in the tropics.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 55
Descartes wrote:
…And because I knew nothing but fire which could produce light, excepting the stars, I studied amongst other things to make very clear tall that pertains to it’s nature, how it is formed, how nourished, how there is sometimes only heat without light, and sometimes light without heat; I showed too, how different colours might by it be induced upon different bodies and qualities of diverse kinds, how some of these were liquefied and others solidified, how nearly all can be consumed or converted into ashes and smoke by its means, and finally how of these ashes, but the intensity of its action alone, it forms glass. Since this transformation of ashes into glass seemed to me as wonderful as any other process in nature, I took particular pleasure in describing it.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 55
Descartes wrote:
I did not at the same time which to infer from all these fact that this world has been created in the manner which I described; for it is much more probably that tat the beginning God mad it such as it was to be. But it is certain, and it is an opinion commonly received by the theologians that the action by which He now preserves it is just the same as that by which He at first created it. In this way, although He had not, to being with, given this world any other form than that of chaos, provided that the laws of nature had once been established and that He had lent His aid in order that is action should be according to its wont, we may well believe without doing outrage to the miracle of creation, that by this means alone all things which are purely material might in course of time have become as such as we observe them to be at present; and their nature is much easier to understand when we see them coming to pass little by little in this manner, than were we to consider them as all complete to begin with.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 55
Descartes wrote:
And we ought not to confound speech with natural movements which betray passion and my be imitated by machines as well as be manifested by animals; nor must we think as did some of the ancients, that brutes talk, although we do not understand their language. For it this were true, since they have many organs which are allied to our own, they could communicate their thoughts to us just as easily as to those of their own race.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 60
Descartes wrote:
For next to the error of those who deny God, which I think I have already sufficiently refuted, there is none which is more effectual in leading feeble spirits from the straight path of virtue, than to imagine that the soul of the brute is of the same nature as our own, and that in consequence, after this life we have nothing to fear or to hope for, any more than the flies and ants.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 5, pg. 60
Descartes wrote:
.. I was commencing to revise it in order to place it in the hands of a printer, when I learned that certain persons, to whose opinion I defer, and whose authority cannot have less weight with my actions than my own reason has over has over my thoughts, had disapproved of a physical theory published a little while before by another person [Galileo]. I will not say that I agreed with this opinion, but only that before their censure I observed in it nothing which I could possibly imagine to be prejudicial either to Religion or the State.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 6, pg. 60
Descartes wrote:
…this made me fear that among my own opinions one might be found which should be misunderstood, notwithstanding the great care which I have always taken not to accept any new beliefs unless I had very certain proof of their truth, and not to give expression that what could tend to the disadvantage of any person.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 6, pg. 60
Descartes wrote:
…to examine them carefully, (for these Is no doubt that we always scrutinize more closely what we think will be seen by many, than what is done simply for ourselves, and often the things which have seemed true to me when I began to think about them, seemed false when I ttried to place them on paper);
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 6, pg. 62
Descartes wrote:
… it hardly ever happens that any of their disciples surpass them [the ancient philosophers] … those who must passionately follow Aristotle, now-a-days would think themselves happy if they had as much knowledge of nature as he had. … like the Ivy that never tried to mount above the trees which give it support.
René Descartes: Discourse on the Method, Part 6, pg. 64
VOCABULARY - René Descartes: Discourse on the Method
Pg. 46, syllogismsdeductive reasoning in which a conclusion is derived from two premises
Pg. 46, superfluousexcess, extra, redundant, spare, supererogatory, superfluous,supernumerary, surplusmore than is needed, desired, or required; "trying to lose excessweight"; "found some extra change lying on the dresser"; "yet anotherbook on heraldry might be thought redundant"; "skills made redundantby technological advance"; "sleeping in the spare2 otiose, pointless, superfluous, wastedserving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being; "otiose linesin a play"; "advice is wasted words
Pg. 47, multiplicitythe property of being multiple
Pg. 47 precipitationhaste, hastiness, hurry, hurriedness, precipitation overly eager speed (and possible carelessness); "he soon regrettedhis haste"
Pg. 47, reconditedifficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinaryunderstanding or knowledge; "the professor's lectures were so abstrusethat students tended to avoid them"; "a deep metaphysical theory";"some recondite problem in historiography"
Pg. 51, paralogismsan unintentionally invalid argument
Pg. 54, chimeraa grotesque product of the imagination
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