Synopsis of Descartes’s- A Discourse of a Method for the Well Guiding of Reason

Andrew Stutts

Rene Descartes was a 17th century French mathematician and philosopher best known for his statement "I think, therefore I am."  

 In A Discourse of a Method for the Well Guiding of Reason, Descartes professed his discovery of an effective way of directing his reason that aided him in numerous noteworthy breakthroughs in his scientific research. He commenced to describe his method by beginning an autobiography of sorts, in which he humbly described his intellectual attributes as being average.  He recounted his intellectual development and of how he came upon his “method for the well guiding of reason.”  Descartes made it clear in the beginning of this discourse that the goal of his life’s path was the pursuit of knowledge and self-improvement.

Moreover, he provided an account concerning his early life of “reading the letters.”  He felt that what he had learned was inadequate and was particularly dissatisfied with philosophy. He had found no certainty, only aggregative doubts as noted in the following passage: “I shall say nothing of Philosophy, but that seeing it hath been cultivated by the most excellent wits, which have liv’d these many ages, and that yet there is nothing which is undisputed, and by consequence, which is not doubtfull” (Descartes, Part I, 13).  Left downright unfulfilled with the answers he found in these studies, he chose to engage in a divergent course for obtaining knowledge and understanding of the world, in the process he dedicated several years to traveling in Europe.

Descartes related that the real turning point in his life came when he spent a day alone in a room with his thoughts.  There he resolved to question all his former ideas and convictions.  However, later in the text Descartes stressed the importance of remaining grounded in a set of principles. Therefore, he established a moral code that he followed during this period of inquiry.  The following is a summary of the morals tenets he vowed to follow:

The first was to obey the lawes and customes of my Country , constantly adhæring to that Religion wherein by the grace of God I had from mine infancy bin bred.…

My second Maxime was, To be the most constant and resolute in my actions that I could; and to follow with no less perseverance the most doubtfull opinions, when I had once determined them, then if they had been the most certain…

My third Maxime was, To endevour always rather to conquer my self then Fortune; and to change my desires, rather then the order of the world: and generally to accustome my self to believe…

Lastly, To conclude these Morals, I thought fit to make a review of mens severall imployments in this life, that I might endeavour to make choice of the best, and without prejudice to other mens, I thought I could not do better then to continue in the same wherein I was, that is, to imploy all my life in cultivating my Reason, and advancing my self, as far as I could in the knowledge of Truth, following the Method I had prescribed myself…

            Descartes, Part III, 37-44

Descartes expounded on how he planned to rout the knowledge he gained from the books and replace it with a fuller understanding of the world, collected from his travels and reflections.  He went on to explain, “The Method”, which consists of four parts:

The first was, never to receive any thing for true, but what I evidently knew to be so; that’s to say, Carefully to avoid Precipitation and Prevention,]and to admit nothing more into my judgment, but what should so clearly and distinctly present it self to my minde, that I could have no reason to doubt of it.

The second, to divide every One of these difficulties, which I was to examine into as many parcels as could be, and, as was requisite the better to resolve them.

The third, to lead my thoughts in order, beginning by the most simple objects, and the easiest to be known; to rise by little and little, as by steps, even to the knowledg of the most mixt; and even supposing an Order among those which naturally doe not precede one the other.

And the last, to make every where such exact calculations, and such generall reviews, That I might be confident to have omitted Nothing.

                                    -Descartes, Part II,  30

Descartes then noted that an accurate observance of these rules enabled him to solve a few interesting scientific problems.  Finally, he made it clear that by employing these principles to algebra and geometry, he had great success and discovered analytic geometry. 

Descartes then moved the topic towards the existence of self and God.   After the many years of travel Descartes found he doubted pretty much everything except the fact that he exists. Likewise, the very act of doubting itself advocated his existence in his thinking, otherwise how would he be able to doubt.  He emphasized this point with the famous quote: “And perceiving that this Truth, I think, therefore, I am” (Decartes, Part IIII, 52).  He declared he simply knows he exist because he is incapable of doubting it. He further concluded that because he is essentially a thinking thing that his soul must be distinct from his body. He also maintained that there is the separate existence of body and soul, reaching the conclusion that the soul must exist and be immortal. Then, he asserted that God exists, by reasoning that because he can clearly perceive his imperfection, and can contemplate a being more perfect than himself, it clearly must be God.  The reason being that this concept of perfection implanted in him is from an origin outside himself.

Descartes devoted some portion of his writing to reasoning about the structure of our bodies, and of the bodies of animals.  He used this to further expound upon the clear separation of body and soul.   He finished this portion of his writing by broaching the subject of how machines could perhaps mimic the functions of the body, which was very forward thinking, but in no way of the soul.

Descartes finished his discourse by providing an explanation as to what prevented him from publishing the work sooner.  He referred to “another individual” who has published “a certain doctrine in physics” that seem to raise great controversy and opposition.  This may have been in reference to Galileo and given the fact that Descartes views were extremely progressive thinking for a man of this era; his restraint in publishing is easily understood.   

Works Cited

 Descartes, Rene. A Discourse of a Method for the Well Guiding of Reason. EBook