discourse on method by descartes :: essays research papers

DISCOURSE ON THE METHOD OF RIGHTLY CONDUCTING THE REASON,AND SEEKING TRUTH IN THE SCIENCESintroductory NOTE BY THE AUTHORIf this Discourse appear too long to be read at once, it may be dividedinto six separate and, in the first, will be found various considerationstouching the Sciences in the second, the principal rules of the orderwhich the Author has discovered, in the third, certain of the rules ofMorals which he has deduced from this Method in the fourth, thereasonings by which he establishes the existence of God and of the HumanSoul, which are the foundations of his Metaphysic in the fifth, the orderof the Physical questions which he has investigated, and, in particular,the explication of the motion of the heart and of just about other difficultiespertaining to Medicine, as also the difference between the soul of man andthat of the brutes and, in the last, what the Author believes to berequired in order to greater patterned advance in the investigation of Naturethan has yet been made, with the reasons that have induced him to write.PART 1Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed forevery unitary thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those evenwho are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usuallydesire a larger meter of this quality than they already possess. And inthis it is not likely that all are mistaken the conviction is rather to beheld as testifying that the power of judging powerful and of distinguishingtruth from error, which is properly what is called good sense or reason,is by nature equal in all men and that the diversity of our opinions,consequently, does not arise from many being endowed with a larger shareof reason than others, but solely from this, that we conduct our thoughtsalong different ways, and do not fix our precaution on the same objects.For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough the prime requisiteis rightly to apply it. The greatest minds, as they are c apable of thehighest excellences, are open likewise to the greatest aberrations andthose who travel very slowly may yet make far greater progress, providedthey contain always to the straight road, than those who, while they run,forsake it.For myself, I have never fancied my mind to be in any respect more stainlessthan those of the generality on the contrary, I have often wished that Iwere equal to some others in promptitude of thought, or in clearness and