discourse on method by descartes :: essays research papers

DISCOURSE ON THE mode OF RIGHTLY CONDUCTING THE REASON,AND SEEKING TRUTH IN THE SCIENCESPREFATORY NOTE BY THE AUTHORIf this Discourse appear too long to be ascertain at once, it may be dividedinto six Parts and, in the first, will be found various considerationstouching the Sciences in the second, the important rules of the systemwhich 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 atomic number 18 the foundations of his Metaphysic in the fifth, the clubhouseof the Physical questions which he has investigated, and, in particular,the explication of the motion of the philia and of some other difficultiespertaining to Medicine, as also the difference between the soulfulness of man andthat of the brutes and, in the last, what the Author believes to berequired in order to greater advancement in the investigation of Na turethan has yet been made, with the reasons that sire induced him to write.PART 1Good sense is, of all things among men, the about equally distributed forevery one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those evenwho are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not normallydesire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess. And inthis it is not likely that all are mistaken the conviction is kind of to beheld as testifying that the power of judging aright and of distinguishingtruth from error, which is by rights 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 some cosmos endowed with a larger shareof reason than others, but totally from this, that we conduct our thoughtsalong different ways, and do not fix our attendance on the same objects.For to be possessed of a vigorous headland is not enough the prime requisiteis rightly to apply it. The gr eat minds, as they are capable of thehighest excellences, are open likewise to the superior aberrations andthose who travel very slowly may yet make farthermost greater progress, providedthey keep always to the straight road, than those who, while they run,forsake it.For myself, I invite never fancied my mind to be in every respect more perfectthan 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