Discourse on the Method of Rightly Directing One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences

René Descartes (1596–1650) was one of Europe's most influential thinkers, whose work "Discourse on the Method" laid the foundation for a new philosophical tradition. In this book, he explores the rules of thought, moral principles, and the fundamentals of metaphysics, contemplates the existence of God and the soul, and explains questions of physics and medicine. This is the first great philosophical work in French, which opened the way for new European science and philosophy.

PREFACE

If these Discourses seem too long to be read at once, they can be divided into six parts. In the first part, we find various considerations concerning the sciences. In the second, the main rules of the method devised by the author. In the third, certain rules of morality which the author derived from this method. In the fourth, the arguments by which he proves the existence of God and the human soul, and which form the foundation of his metaphysics. In the fifth, a series of questions in physics that he examined, and, in particular, an explanation of the movement of the heart and some other difficult points related to medicine, as well as the distinction between our soul and the soul of animals. And in the last, what, in the author's opinion, is necessary to advance further than in former times in the investigation of nature, as well as the reasons that compelled him to write about it.