Descartes' Rational Method & Intriguing Short Stories

Descartes' Quest for Certainty Through Doubt

René Descartes, through his Cartesian method, aimed to demonstrate that human reason is capable of discovering fundamental evidences (born from doubt) to construct knowledge. Therefore, his method would be doubt, and his objective, the search for truth. "Doubt is the epistemological procedure to arrive at certainty."

The Cartesian Method: Four Rules

1. Criterion of Evidence: To accept nothing as true unless it presents itself clearly and distinctly.
2. Analysis: To divide each difficulty into as many parts as possible for a thorough study.
3. Synthesis: To conduct thoughts in an orderly fashion, starting with the simplest and easiest to know, and gradually ascending to the more complex.
4. Enumeration: To make enumerations so complete and reviews so general that one is certain of omitting nothing and committing no errors.

Compelling Short Story Summaries

A Woman Seldom Found

The author crafts a mysterious and terrifying atmosphere by depicting a boy who feels profoundly alone while visiting Rome. Despite this, he encounters a girl, dines with her, and they end up spending the night together.

A Night at a Cottage

A boy, recently released from prison, finds himself without a destination in the pouring rain. He discovers an abandoned cottage. In the middle of the night, he awakens to footsteps. A very wet man stands before him. They converse, and the first boy, noticing the newcomer's persistent dampness, asks why he hasn't dried himself. It is then he realizes the man is a ghost.

A Time to Die

After dinner, Ellison returned home to find that the bread had not risen. Troubled by this, he decided to investigate, only to realize that in reality, merely seconds remained before a bomb was set to explode. Ultimately, Ellison perished, but Dulcie survived.

Eye Witness

Struthers chooses not to testify because the murderer is the woman's lieutenant.

The Haunted Cemetery

Visitors to the cemetery reported feeling an unseen force pushing them. Others added that unexplained scratches suddenly appeared on their skin, and some even experienced sensations of suffocation. They decided to notify the police. Two investigators conducted an inquiry at the cemetery, reporting strange smells and sensations that strongly suggested the presence of ghosts.