Discourse on the Method

Discourse on the Method

Discourse on the Method
Author	René Descartes
Original title	Discours de la Méthode Pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences
Language	French
Subject	Philosophy and autobiography
Publication date	1637
Original text	Discours de la Méthode Pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences at French Wikisource
Translation	Discourse on the Method at Wikisource

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René Descartes
Philosophy Cartesianism Rationalism Foundationalism Mechanism Doubt and certainty Dream argument Cogito, ergo sum Evil demon Trademark argument Causal adequacy principle Mind–body dichotomy Analytic geometry Coordinate system Cartesian circle Folium Rule of signs Cartesian diver Balloonist theory Wax argument Res cogitans Res extensa
Works Rules for the Direction of the Mind The Search for Truth The World Discourse on the Method La Géométrie Meditations on First Philosophy Principles of Philosophy Passions of the Soul
People Christina, Queen of Sweden Nicolas Malebranche Baruch Spinoza Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Francine Descartes
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Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences (French: Discours de la Méthode pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences) is a philosophical and autobiographical treatise published by René Descartes in 1637. It is best known as the source of the famous quotation "Je pense, donc je suis" ("I think, therefore I am", or "I am thinking, therefore I exist"),^[1] which occurs in Part IV of the work. A similar argument, without this precise wording, is found in Meditations on First Philosophy (1641), and a Latin version of the same statement Cogito, ergo sum is found in Principles of Philosophy (1644).

Discourse on the Method is one of the most influential works in the history of modern philosophy, and important to the development of natural sciences.^[2] In this work, Descartes tackles the problem of skepticism, which had previously been studied by other philosophers. While addressing some of his predecessors and contemporaries, Descartes modified their approach to account for a truth he found to be incontrovertible; he started his line of reasoning by doubting everything, so as to assess the world from a fresh perspective, clear of any preconceived notions.

The book was originally published in Leiden, in the Netherlands. Later, it was translated into Latin and published in 1656 in Amsterdam. The book was intended as an introduction to three works: Dioptrique, Météores [fr], and Géométrie. Géométrie contains Descartes's initial concepts that later developed into the Cartesian coordinate system. The text was written and published in French rather than Latin, the latter being the language in which most philosophical and scientific texts were written and published at that time. Most of Descartes' other works were written in Latin.

Together with Meditations on First Philosophy, Principles of Philosophy and Rules for the Direction of the Mind, it forms the base of the epistemology known as Cartesianism.