Descartes' Method: Rules for Reasoning

Descartes' Method: Seeking Certainty in Knowledge

Descartes sought a method to make it impossible to mistake the false for the true, progressively leading to the knowledge of everything that can be known. This method has its foundation in reason, guaranteeing the right conduct of reason, and is accessible to all. Human knowledge can proceed from experience, but it can be tricky. You can see evil, hear evil, or be the victim of hallucinations. In knowledge gained through experience, the subject is responsive and behaves passively. There is a possibility of error.

So, human knowledge can also come from... deduction, which provides absolutely certain knowledge with no possibility of doubt. This is the procedure followed by mathematics, and which Descartes proposes to support his method.

Descartes' Truths:

• Private Truths
• Shared Collective Beliefs
• Universal Truths

The First Four Rules of Descartes' Method

1. The Rule of Evidence

   Avoid precipitation and prevention. Only accept what is presented so clearly and distinctly: clear and distinct words, the knowledge that creates the right, the mind, through intuition, which is the first major act of reason.

2. The Rule of Analysis

   Problems must be perfectly determined and reduced to their simplest form.

3. The Rule of Synthesis

   This rule involves synthesis and deduction, which is the second fundamental act of reason: the construction of the complex (that is deduced) from the simple (that can be intuited). It understands synthesis and deduction, which is the second fundamental act of reason: the construction of the complex (that is deducted) from the simple (you can guess).

4. The Rule of Enumeration

   (Aware of the weakness of memory...) Enumeration checks the analysis. The review controls synthesis. Both let you see the chain of deductions as something complete and clear.