Descartes' Method: A Deep Dive into His Works

Descartes' Philosophical Context and Major Works

Animals are capable of carnal love, and we were like trees, sensitive beings. If objects could not love, anything that has movement and feeling could. But as we are men, created in the image of our Creator, who is the eternal truth, eternal and true love, we are able to return there in the triple form of human nature, as the image of God. "I am, I know, I want to be."

René Descartes was born in 1596. He studied at the Jesuit college of La Flèche. After graduation, he decided to learn from the "great book of the world." In 1619, he embarked on a search for truth through the use of reason. His most important works are:

• Rules for the Direction of the Spirit: An unfinished work containing twenty-one rules to achieve truth.
• The World: Where the author supports the thesis of Copernicus.
• Discourse on Method (1637): Written as a prologue to three essays (Dioptrics, Meteorology, and Geometry), it addresses methodological and metaphysical topics.
• Meditations on First Philosophy (1641): Descartes lays down the metaphysical foundation of science.
• Principles of Philosophy (1644): Summarizes Descartes' thought.
• Passions of the Soul (1649): Shows how to transform our affective lives.

Discourse on Method: A Detailed Breakdown

Discourse on Method is a work in which Descartes discusses his life, reducing it to the vicissitudes of his thought. Determined to devote his life to the pursuit of truth, he discusses the things he considered to achieve this purpose. He also highlights the importance of Cartesian philosophy, which takes place in metaphysics and early meditations on philosophy. This work appeared in a single volume with Dioptrics, Meteorology, and Geometry, and was published in the vernacular, French. This reflects the reaction of modern philosophy against scholastic philosophy and the attempt to make it more worldly.

Descartes divided the Discourse into six parts:

1. Part 1: A critical review of his education, analyzing various sciences and proclaiming the renunciation of book learning.
2. Part 2: Proposes discarding the principal rules of the method, taking the best of logic and mathematics while avoiding their defects.
3. Part 3: Establishes a provisional morality whose rules are: to observe the laws and customs of his country and the more moderate views; to be firm and resolute in his actions; and to accept the world order.
4. Part 4: Establishes the existence of the soul and proves the existence of God as the foundations of his metaphysics.
5. Part 5: Deals with certain issues in physics and medicine.
6. Part 6: Discusses the requirements for progress in the investigation of nature and the reasons that have moved him to write.