"It is not enough to have a good mind; it is more important to use it well"
Rene Descartes was a central figure in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. In his Discourse on Method he outlined the contrast between mathematics and experimental sciences, and the extent to which each one can achieve certainty. Drawing on his own work in geometry, optics, astronomy and physiology, Descartes developed the hypothetical method that characterizes modern science, and this soon came to replace the traditional techniques derived from Aristotle. Many of Descartes most...

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Translator's Introduction Introduction by Genevieve Rodis-Lewis"The Passions of the Sou"l: Preface PART I: About the Passions in General, and Incidentally about the Entire Nature of Man PART II: About the Number and Order of the Passions, and the Explanation of the Six Primitives PART III: About the Particular Passions Lexicon: Index to Lexicon Bibliography Index Index Locorum"

This volume preserves the format in which Discourse on Method was originally published: as a preface to Descartes's writings on optics, geometry, and meteorology. In his introduction, Olscamp discusses the value of reading the Discourse alongside these three works, which sheds new light on Descartes's method. Includes an updated bibliography.

The Discourse on the Method is a philosophical and mathematical treatise published by Rene Descartes in 1637. Its full name is Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Searching for Truth in the Sciences. The Discourse on Method is best known as the source of the famous quotation "Je pense, donc je suis," "I think, therefore I am."This is one of the most influential works in the history of modern science

Descartes is universally acknowledged as the father of modern Western philosophy. It is to the writings of Descartes, above all others that we must turn if we wish to understand the great seventeenth-century revolution in which the old scholastic worldview slowly lost its grip, and the foundations of modern philosophical and scientific thinking were laid. The range of Descartes thought was enormous, and his published work includes writings on mathematics, physics, astronomy, meteorology, optics, physiology, psychology, metaphysics and ethics. The original publishers preface reads as...

Special Large Print edition, with easy-to-read text, of Descartes' classic essays.

Rene Descartes was a central figure in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. In his Discourse on Method he outlined the contrast between mathematics and experimental sciences, and the extent to which each one can achieve certainty. Drawing on his own work in geometry, optics, astronomy and physiology, Descartes developed the hypothetical method that characterizes modern science, and this soon came to replace the traditional techniques derived from Aristotle. Many of Descartes' most radical ideas such as the disparity between our perceptions and the realities that cause them...

One of the foundation-stones of modern philosophy
Descartes was prepared to go to any lengths in his search for certainty even to deny those things that seemed most self-evident. In his Meditations of 1641, and in the Objections and Replies that were included with the original publication, he set out to dismantle and then reconstruct the idea of the individual self and its existence. In doing so, Descartes developed a language of subjectivity that has lasted to this day, and he also took his first steps towards the view that would eventually be expressed in the epigram Cogito,...

Widely regarded as the father of modern Western philosophy, Descartes sought to look beyond established ideas and create a thought system based on reason. In this work he meditates on doubt, the human soul, God, truth and the nature of existence itself.