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    Discourse on the Method
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    Discourse on the Method
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    Discourse on the Method
    Ebook81 pages1 hour

    Discourse on the Method

    By René Descartes

    3.5/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSheba Blake Publishing
    Release dateMay 5, 2015
    ISBN9781312905092
    Author

    René Descartes

    René Descartes, known as the Father of Modern Philosophy and inventor of Cartesian coordinates, was a seventeenth century French philosopher, mathematician, and writer. Descartes made significant contributions to the fields of philosophy and mathematics, and was a proponent of rationalism, believing strongly in fact and deductive reasoning. Working in both French and Latin, he wrote many mathematical and philosophical works including The World, Discourse on a Method, Meditations on First Philosophy, and Passions of the Soul. He is perhaps best known for originating the statement “I think, therefore I am.”

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    Reviews for Discourse on the Method

    3.5/5

    199 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Absolutely fundamental to understand Descartes philosophy
    • 4/5
      Like a warm bath for the mind, and takes about as long - parts 1-4 at least. Reading it in English, I wonder if he is so straightforward and readable in French. Parts 1-4 are eloquent and minimal, and certainly worth re-reading - meditations of reason. Part 5, home to the famous 'cogito ergo sum' line, is pretty tedious after the first page and that very quote. Just skip part 6. The introduction - despite being longer than the actual text - is worth reading. It sets the scene and gives the historical context. Interesting to note that it was originally published in French, so perhaps the line we know him by should rather be 'je pense donc je suis'. If it had ended on that line, I would rate it 5.
    • 2/5
      The title is certainly misleading. Sex and science (and above all the combination of the two) are definitely my thing, but this book has precious little of either. It is an interesting enough account of how necessity and the profit profit motive lie at the root of much innovation, but that hardly justifies this lengthy treatment.
    • 5/5
      Travail de philosophie classique, ce livre est un essentiel des bibliothèques Françaises.
    • 5/5
      Together with Bacon's New Organon, this small, lucid book is the methodological foundation of the entire scientific revolution - the "birth" of modern science during the 17th century - & perhaps even of technology as such. The celebrated & hypnotic mantra "nous rendre comme maîtres & possesseurs de la nature" - to acquire command of all nature by the radically cautious & methodical acquisition of knowledge that Descartes outlines - became a programme, a prize, an obsession, & decided, for good & evil, the size & shape of our universe.
    • 4/5
      This book marks the shift in philosophical speculation, from the Nature-Grace ethos of the Medieval age to that of Nature-Freedom of the Enlightenment. Descartes essentially put an X through the then standing assumptions regarding knowledge. Agree or disagree, this book defines much of Western thought to this day. This is an important book. Funny, most of the really powerful and long-lasting ideas have been in brief books like this one.
    • 4/5
      This work contains his famous "cogito, ergo sum" after which he seems to leap to other conclusions, including God, that do not necessarily follow. He lived for 8 productive years in wartime Holland, where he was able to isolate himself by moving frequently. He did not publish some of his works, having seen the effect for Galileo of publishing great discoveries. This may also have influenced some of his proofs of God: causality implies that something created all of this and I have imperfections; hence there must be something greater than me. He also advocated the power of one master workman in science as in other crafts, and perhaps saw himself as destined to make all of the discoveries along the paths he was pursuing. He observed that what led to knowledge was not so much good sense as pursuit of it through mental effort. He observed that, while giving his mind somewhat of a grounding, formal schooling served mostly to disclose his ignorance and that of those around him. His philosophical method includes regarding as false anything only probable and yet he notes that learned philosophers have debated for years without finding truth in the same matters. Amidst all of this, he is also able to make such practical observations as one regarding fashion: that what pleased people 10 years ago will again please them 10 years hence, and yet be ridiculous today.
    • 3/5
      Interesting first part where he "debunks" the previous history of philosophy; but what was all that stuff about the motion of the blood and heart towards the end?