Discourse on Method and Related Writings (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

~ Rene Descartes (Author) "If this discourse seems too long to be read all together at one time, it may be divided into six parts..." (more)
Key Phrases: intermediate proportionals, adequate enumeration, imperfect questions, Rule Seven (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A new, superb translation of Descartes' seminal contribution to modern philosophy and science.

The age of Newton marks one of the great turning points in intellectual history, and Descartes has a key place at its very heart. Designed for students who approach Descartes from the point of view of his philosophy of science, this is the second of a new two-volume edition of the works of Descartes in Penguin Classics. Descartes did major research in optics, geometry, astronomy, and physiology, although (partly because Galileo had just been condemned by the Inquisition) he published nothing until he was over forty. The Discourse forms the preface to his first collection of scientific papers, outlining a new method based on hypothesis and deduction, which effectively replaced Aristotelian techniques. This edition puts the work in context by including extracts from Descartes' correspondence, the Rules for Guiding One's Intelligence, and The World--a posthumously published summary of his physical theories.

Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Desmond M. Clarke

About the Author

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was born in La Haye, France, and educated at the Jesuit College at La Fleche. In 1628 he retired to the Netherlands to study philosophy until 1649, when he was invited to Sweden to instruct Queen Christina.

Desmond M. Clarke is chair and head of the Department of Philosophy at the National University of Ireland, Cork.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (February 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140446990
• ISBN-13: 978-0140446999
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #312,481 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #37 in

  Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy > Methodology

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One Caveat, November 19, 2005

By	D. Cory (Wheaton, MD) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I always like this publisher; they do a good job. On the other hand, be warned that this translator Desmond Clarke is not the standard translator. If you are serious about Descartes, and your Latin and French aren't up to par, use the Cotthingham, Stoothoff, and Murdoch translation.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I think, therefore I read..., October 11, 2005

By	FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Rene Descartes is often considered the founding father of modern philosophy. A true Renaissance man, he studied Scholastic philosophy and physics as a student, spent time as a volunteer soldier and traveler throughout Europe, studied mathematics, appreciated the arts, and became a noted correspondent with royals and intellectual figures throughout the continent. He died in Sweden while on assignment as tutor to the Queen, Christiana.

Descartes 'Discourse on Method' is a fascinating text, combining the newly-invented form of essay (Descartes was familiar with the Essays of Montaigne) with the same kind of autobiographical impulse that underpins Augustine's Confessions. Descartes writes about his own form of mystical experience, seeing this as almost a kind of revelation that all past knowledge would be superseded, and all problems would eventually be solved by human intellect.

In the Discourse, Descartes formulates logical principles based on reason (which makes it somewhat ironic that this came to him almost as a revelation). Descartes had some appreciation for thinkers such as Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes, but he thought that Bacon depended too much upon empirical data, and with Hobbes he disagreed on what would be the criteria for ascertaining certainty.

Descartes was a mathematician at heart, and perhaps had a carry-over of Pythagorean mystical attachment to mathematics, for his sense of reason led him to impute an absolute quality to mathematics; this has major implications for metaphysics and epistemology. Descartes method was a continuation in many ways of the ideas of Plato, Aristotle and the medieval thinkers, for they all tended toward thinking in absolute, universal terms in some degree.

Descartes in his first section discounts much of Scholasticism, stating that the only real absolutes are theology and mathematics; because theology is based upon revelation, it is therefore beyond reason, and thus, mathematics becomes the only rational truth. Descartes develops this idea further with rules of method, which include ideas of intuition, analysis and deduction. He uses some of his method to come up with his greatest proposition:

Cogito ergo sum - - I think, therefore I am

'The Cogito is a first principle from which Descartes will now deduce all that follows.' This permits Descartes to deal both with rational elements and empirical data.

The other writings included here give good insight into the ways in which this method influenced Descartes. His correspondence was one of the things for which he was most famous during his lifetime, and Descartes carried on extensive correspondence with people throughout Europe helping educate and elucidate through his writing.

This is an important text; the 'Discourse on Method' is one that I read the summer before I went to college, and makes a good study for those who wish to see the personal element in the development of philosophy.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I think this is a great book therefore it is..., May 16, 2001

By	Brandon Osborne (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews

Discourse on Method forces you to look at the world in a completely different manner. Simply go to a quiet place and shut your eyes for a moment -- after you read this review. You cannot see anything nor hear anything apart from your thoughts. At this point, can you prove that anything really exists? Do you exist? If so, then why? How can you prove it? The answer lay in the following three words: Cogito Ergo Sum - I think, therefore I am. If you are up to solving the afore mentioned and other philosophical conundrums, I would definately recommend this book!